JH: What is the effect of this being, going on, continuing unchecked?<\/p>\n
ABC: Well certainly among the poorest the effect is the erosion of family life, the erosion of self confidence. There is still a stigma about debt even though it is taken for granted in so many quarters but the stigma means people don’t want to talk about it, they don’t necessarily want to go and get the best advice about it and for young people particularly it does become crippling, especially for children.<\/p>\n
JH: And do you think that, putting aside that aspect of it, do you think when we see people becoming in the words of another former government minister, ‘filthy rich’, our attitude is, ‘I want a bit of that myself’ and therefore a good thing for society which is what America has until very recently appeared to believe, or do you think the opposite effect?<\/p>\n
ABC: I think it is a bit of both isn’t it. I think there’s a degree of envy and cynicism that’s bred by disproportion and that leads people to feel even more alienated from the rest of society \u201d\u201c that the gulf is even greater between themselves, between people who can’t manage there own affairs – can’t take control of their own affairs\/ circumstances – and these others. So there may be an element of I’d like some of that but here is also an element of what kind of society is this? Why should I trust this system when it rewards some people so disproportionately in a way that doesn’t connect at all where I am?<\/p>\n
JH: So you are simply saying that the government and the politicians are more relaxed about that than you are and that you are taking…?<\/p>\n
ABC: They seem to be. I wouldn’t mind if they were a little more worried.<\/p>\n
JH: And in what sense? Exemplified how?<\/p>\n
ABC: I don’t want to go into the details of how regulation of high salaries might be achieved because my primary concern today is simply with the poorest end of the spectrum where I think more can be done, more rapidly and in a more focused way.<\/p>\n