British actress Emma Thompson once called her home country a “cake-filled misery-laden gray old island.” That playful characterization, conforming to every stereotype of the U.K., has gotten a harder edge in the past year as a Brexit Britain mentality takes hold and metaphorical gates close with only the promise of a lucrative jam industry and the obviously empty promise of empire to warm those sunless days.
But still, Brits kept their balance during the Blitz, while Americans are mocked for their me-me-me mentality — so it’s a bit of a surprise to learn that:
ONLY 25 PERCENT OF BRITS THINK LIFE IS FAIR, COMPARED WITH 38 PERCENT OF AMERICANS.
Now, if you look at statistics on inequality, these numbers should be reversed. The Gini coefficient, a measurement of how evenly wealth is distributed in a country, is very clear: In terms of income, the U.S. is less equal than the U.K. by quite a bit, though the average Gini coefficient was at record highs, meaning there’s a record amount of inequality, according to the latest figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
