Bottom left out
Sir: Charles Moore (Another voice, 11 March) refers to the recent Rowntree report on income and wealth as being based on the premise that 'inequality of wealth is unfair and capitalism is the engine of that inequality'. No one who has spent five minutes reading the report could have made such a statement.
The central thrust of the report is to show that the extent of the changes in income distribution in this country over recent years (as found by government , statisticians and reputable research bodies) is a cause for economic and social concern.
The response required is for us to invest more in research education and training and in the removal of barriers and disincen- tives to work, It is in this way that the Rowntree Foundation's Inquiry Group (of which Tessa Baring was a distinguished member, alongside the Director General of the CBI, the Deputy Chairman of British Telecom and others) considered that we must meet the challenges of new technolo- gy and global competition in the future.
Many of us have enjoyed rapidly rising prosperity in recent years. It is wasteful of resources and economically and socially unwise to ignore the fact that a substantial proportion of the population at the bottom has been completely left out.
Peter Barclay
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The Homestead, 40 Water End, York
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