When we think about the United Kingdom, do we ever stop to think about the type of country that we want to live in.

I am a social documentary photographer and I am interested in the social landscape we inhabit. That social landscape, has been shaped by capitalism for a very long time in the United Kingdom as Capitalism started here first. It has got to the point where we are a bit like the fish that is swimming in its fishbowl, who does not see the water they swim in. We do not see how capitalism, has shaped every aspect of our daily lives. I have now lived long enough that for all of my working life I have lived though what is often referred to as Neo-Liberal economics, it has been called Reaganomics or Thatcherism. However, I now have come to the conclusion that ever since the financial crash of 2008, when Gordon Brown effectively saved capitalism, it has been in continuous crisis. Since then, which is why we now have the rise of the far-right across America and Europe.

This continuing crisis of capitalism is not going away and it is a result in part by the ambitions of people, who really should not have been given the opportunity to shape our political and economic processes.

Capitalists have a tendency to favour fascism, as it is often seen as an effective way to create discipline within the population. Unfortunately within the current state of capitalism, we are going to be in for a rough ride as the centre is not holding, as they are asleep at the wheel, not realising that it is there ideas and policies that are causing the rise of the extreme inequality that has been created. The right is rising and the left has not woken up to the threats that this entails.

We have an eco-suicidal fascistic US state emerging, while across Europe and here in the UK, a rising chance that we will also have governments that are far right, who want to dismantle the social contract between the people and the state.

The left, are still not forcefully enough in making the case for the extensive development of renewal energy and a renewed social justice agenda. One that seeks to develop in full the human potential of all members of our society, from the newly arrived migrants to the ones who have deep ancestral links to the places where we live. Why do I say we need renewable energy, because once it reaches a certain tipping point, it is going to become good business practices to switch to renewal energy. For one simple reason, it is cheaper than digging shit out to of the ground, crap that is poisoning the environment and destroying our liveable world. Capitalists, are already adapting and the insurance industry is rapidly evolving to cope, with fact that capitalism itself is going to come unstuck. When we can no longer afford to insure, against the risks that are coming our way, with an out of control, runaway global climate crisis.

To often we give the far right the time and headspace that they desire to air their grievances. However, we are now living with the consequences of mainstream media’s inability to be able to put forward any argument, that shows how pervasive and toxic the far-rights ideas have become. These ideas that are gaining traction, are not helpful to a fully functioning social democracy. One that seeks to build on all, that is good in humanity.

Mankind has the potential to achieve even greater things and we have overcome a lot to get this far, we have a chance to rid the world of bigotry and make the world a far better place

Population and the kind of society we want?

We need to think seriously about the world we want. Do we want a world that is smaller, nastier or one that is open and inviting. One that cares, not just for people in our own country, but one that is expansive and able to embrace the full diversity, that the world has to offer. One that is enriched, by cultures and ideas from around the world. All really successful societies, have been able to accept this and grow. If we want to have MAGA ideas that embrace the old ideas of closing people and places off, this only leads to smaller, meaner, and less successful world to live in. For we want expansive live it will mean we need to be embracing immigration and the diversity that comes with it. It means being open to ideas and cultures, we will not be swamped by the migrants that arrive here in the UK either though dangerous journeys on boast or through legal migration means.

I am not sure many people realise this. Right now the world’s population is about to change. When I was young and reading Sci-Fi books all of them used to start of the premise that the world would get to be over crowded. We are soon going to see a start of a global shrinking of population as birth rates are collapsing around the world. See these projections of migration from a report published in the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/feb/18/europes-population-crisis-see-how-your-country-compares-visualised Without migration, the population of Europe is going to collapse. And with that collapse of population we will most likely see a collapse of social services and the capitalist economy that has seen most peoples lifestyles grow. The ultra rich have always found ways of gaming the system, for everyone else it has always been much harder.

What kind of world do you want?

If you are like most people you want a world that is secure, one where there is no war, not to much social inequality and one where you and your family does well. This is what most people want. We want to work and earn money that we can use to live with a measure of security and to have a surplus at the end of each month so that our outgoings are less than our incomes thereby letting us over time build a little bit of wealth and security.

Getting our heads around wealth, as in Extreme wealth.

We do not really get just how problematic inequality is, especially when we have only 56,000 people in the world with nearly a $1B or more each controlling as much wealth as the bottom 50% of the worlds population. Those numbers are hard to visualise the Guardian did an article on this with a graphic that I found really interesting and it is something that we have trouble getting our heads around so someone on a good wage in the Uk of around £100,000 a year is still going to struggle to get into that category of wealth even working all there lives. it is going to take some effort to get to be controlling $1,000,000,000 dollars.

£100,000-00 set say you work for 40 years of working and not spending any of that income and don’t add income from making that money work for you, that amount of money would still only be £4,000,000-00 or £4 million for 40 years of work. How if we look at it another way, if at the end of your working life you have £1Billion pounds and you worked for 40 years to get that amount of money how much a year would you need to earn to after 40 years of working need to have earned every year. If you did not invest your money to grow your pot you would actually need to earn £25 Million a year. This is actually rather simplistic as you would be able to build a fortune of £1Billion over 40 years if you were about to invest and compound the interest and a few other things, but you would need around £5 Million a year to invest, assuming you could also get a return investment of around 7% per annum and never spent that money.

This gives you an idea of how difficult it is to get your head around extreme wealth inequality and why so many of us struggle to be in that small number of 56,000 people, globally who are at or above $1billion in wealth. Because most of use would be happy with far less.

I am going to leave this article with the question: Why do we allow this kind of extreme wealth to be created?

Back to the social landscape that I started this article with. What type of social landscape do you want to live in? I want to live in one that is full of opportunity for everyone, no matter their class, ethnicity, or religion. I want to see a world where people from unequal backgrounds can process and live full and productive lives. I am a migrant and I also think that we need to be kinder to migrants, as they help us to have far more interesting adn richer lives.