The Guardian reports today that the gap between rich and poor has got wider, and that this disparity in the Uk is bigger than in any other of the wealthiest countries (although whether some of the countries previously considered the richest remains that way given the seismic shifts occurring at the moment remains to be seen).

Whether your politics are on the right or the left, whether you are rich or poor, this kind of gap is not good news on a societal level, and unrest is not far from the surface as was shown by the horrendous riots in London last summer.Reigning in the wealthy is very much on the political agenda now as well.

But on another level is the disparity good for business either ? Certainly in the last several decades our economy has relied heavily on consumer spending and if the majority are becoming comparatively poorer they won’t be able to afford to buy the goods and services which keep many of the richer people in the manner to which they are accustomed.

In case any of you just want a few snippet facts from the interesting guardian piece, see below, or follow the link for the full article at the bottom

•  a new report by the OECD suggests that the annual average income in the UK of the top 10% in 2008 was just under £55,000, about 12 times higher than that of the bottom 10%
• In 1985 the ratio was 8 to 1

Income inequality growing faster in UK than any other rich country, says OECD | Society | guardian.co.uk.

Small business survey in the US

Below are some interesting figures from a  survey of 1,000 small business owners in the US. It’s not clear when the survey was done, and economic conditions worldwide are deteriorating rapidly but nonetheless, the figures make for some interesting reading. Small businesses of course face a huge threat when macro economic conditions are in sharp decline. As against that, being small means being nimble and small businesses can adapt to conditions faster than big ones, so really a mixed bag. Anyway, here’s a snippet from the article, link to full post at bottom of this excerpt.

Asked about their outlook for their business’s performance in 2012, SMBs were divided. Forty percent are either “optimistic” or “very optimistic” about the coming year, 32 percent are “neutral” and 28 percent feel either “pessimistic” or “very pessimistic.”

Heading into 2012, SMBs will continue to focus on the challenges that occupied them in 2011. Specifically, their key areas of improvement will be customer/client growth (60 percent) and customer/client retention (38 percent). As a result, the top areas where SMBs plan to spend are marketing (35 percent) and sales (28 percent).

When it comes to innovation and risk-taking, however, the outlook is ho-hum, to say the least. Just 15 percent will focus on technology innovations, a mere 9 percent say geographic expansion is on the horizon, and only 21 percent are even planning to expand their product/service offerings. Nearly one in five (19 percent) say they will make no new investments in their business in 2012.

via Small Business Outlook for 2012: Business as Usual?.

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