<story><title>&apos;We Are Being Levelled Down’: Why the UK’s Wealth Gap Is Widening</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/uk-levelling-up/inflation-government-delays-why-wealth-gap-widens.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pharmakom</author><text>I blame the fetish that the UK has for Oxbridge graduates. The evidence shows they are not very good, perhaps even worse than the Russell Group average. We need to find better indicators of ability; this cannot go on.</text></item><item><author>mmarq</author><text>The UK has entered the institutional reform phase. Like Italy in the early 90s, it has become convinced that the country does not work because some random institutions need changing. In Italy it was `equal bicameralism`, the organisation of administrative divisions (regions and provinces), and other stuff not worth discussing here. In the UK, the institutional reform phase consists of Brexit, Scottish independence and, more recently, &amp;#x27;charter cities&amp;#x27; and the abolition of the House of Lords. All this while taxes on productive activities (let it be labour or corporation tax) are increased, public investments are cut and the quality of public services is declining on a daily basis. The country is wondering why the NHS can&amp;#x27;t hire personnel, while a junior doctor in the UK has less purchasing power than a German janitor and nurses resort to food banks.&lt;p&gt;The fact that since 2010 this country has been ruled by people whose main qualification is being children or husbands of rich people, doesn&amp;#x27;t help. From this cold island, Ursula von der Leyen, a failed German politician, looks like a monumental stateswoman.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>morbia</author><text>Some anecdotal evidence ahead.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been interviewing graduates in the UK for many years now from a very broad range of universities, all focused on CS or stem degrees.&lt;p&gt;In my experience, I&amp;#x27;ve yet to interview an oxbridge graduate who wasn&amp;#x27;t at least great academically, and this is speaking as someone who went to a lesser university. Clearly whatever standards they have for teaching and entry selection criteria really work.&lt;p&gt;That said, graduates from other universities are easily on par with oxbridge, just that there were some total morons amongst their peers as well.&lt;p&gt;In my opinion, the problem is not that the UK fetishes oxbridge candidates, the problem is politics is dominated by arts and ppe graduates which does not offer the problem solving skills stem degrees do. I genuinely think we&amp;#x27;d be in a much better place if our leaders weren&amp;#x27;t trained just in communication, but instead on actually logically thinking through problems and resolving them.</text></comment>
<story><title>&apos;We Are Being Levelled Down’: Why the UK’s Wealth Gap Is Widening</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/uk-levelling-up/inflation-government-delays-why-wealth-gap-widens.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pharmakom</author><text>I blame the fetish that the UK has for Oxbridge graduates. The evidence shows they are not very good, perhaps even worse than the Russell Group average. We need to find better indicators of ability; this cannot go on.</text></item><item><author>mmarq</author><text>The UK has entered the institutional reform phase. Like Italy in the early 90s, it has become convinced that the country does not work because some random institutions need changing. In Italy it was `equal bicameralism`, the organisation of administrative divisions (regions and provinces), and other stuff not worth discussing here. In the UK, the institutional reform phase consists of Brexit, Scottish independence and, more recently, &amp;#x27;charter cities&amp;#x27; and the abolition of the House of Lords. All this while taxes on productive activities (let it be labour or corporation tax) are increased, public investments are cut and the quality of public services is declining on a daily basis. The country is wondering why the NHS can&amp;#x27;t hire personnel, while a junior doctor in the UK has less purchasing power than a German janitor and nurses resort to food banks.&lt;p&gt;The fact that since 2010 this country has been ruled by people whose main qualification is being children or husbands of rich people, doesn&amp;#x27;t help. From this cold island, Ursula von der Leyen, a failed German politician, looks like a monumental stateswoman.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pjc50</author><text>The hiring is not being driven by ability, it&amp;#x27;s being driven by connections. Oxford PPE graduates are being hired .. by other Oxford PPE graduates. And then promoted in the newspapers by the same.</text></comment>