The gap between rich and poor often grabs attention, but new numbers shared at the LSE Hayek Program’s “Liberty and Progress” conference at Clement House in London tell a surprising story about wealth, fairness, and housing. Experts presented stats that show how wealth has shifted over time and why building more homes is key to a fairer society, mixing past trends with today’s roadblocks.
Professor Daniel Waldenström, a Swedish economist, spoke about his book Richer and More Equal. His research shows that since the late 1800s, the middle class has grown a lot, taking a bigger share of society’s wealth—sometimes up to 40% more than in the early 1900s. “What stands out is the massive rise in the size of the middle class and its share of society’s total wealth,” he said. He explained that this happened because people started “owning their homes after having become more productive in the labor market.” But he also noted that taxes on the rich, like inheritance taxes, did not play a big role early on.
“Taxes started picking up much later than wealth started equalizing,” he said, pointing to homeownership as a key driver of fairness. Yet, in recent years, the richest have pulled ahead, as “the rich group has increased their wealth faster than the middle class.”
This connects to what Sam Dumitriu from Britain Remade shared about the UK’s housing crisis. He gave a striking stat: a piece of farmland in southeast England is worth £25,000 per hectare, but if you get permission to build houses on it, its value jumps 180 times to £4.5 million. “We’re not building enough homes, roads, or energy projects,” Sam said. Host Reem Ibrahim, a 22-year-old political commentator often seen on GB News, chimed in with a reason why: “Nimbys.” She explained that “Nimbys”—people who say “not in my backyard” to new projects—often block building plans, worried about changes to their neighborhoods. This resistance makes it harder to build the homes and infrastructure the UK needs. Over the last 30 years, UK house prices have soared by 300% in some areas, while wages have only risen by about 90%. That gap means many can’t buy homes like the middle class did in Daniel’s earlier era, missing out on a keyway to building wealth.
Reem also asked Daniel, “How do you think Hayek would view your findings on wealth equality today?” He replied, “Hayek would likely appreciate the role of individual opportunity in my research, but he’d remind us to keep markets free while ensuring those opportunities reach everyone.” Her question tied the stats to bigger ideas about fairness.
The conference was open to all, with two panels for people to join. It showed how numbers tell a story—about a growing middle class in the past, but also about today’s struggle to build enough homes. These stats remind us that fairness means giving everyone a chance to build a better life, even if it means overcoming a few “Nimbys.”
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