Chefs More Important Than Politicians: A Sign of Progress

Lynne Kiesling

While I'm in England, Mr. Stumbling & Mumbling has a post on income inequality in 1987 and today. Punch line: no change; the progressiveness of direct taxation and the regressiveness of indirect taxation offset each other.

But what caught my attention was how he led in to his discussion:

Remember 1987? When Nigella's dad was Chancellor, when yuppies were at their peak, and when Gordon Gekko declared that "greed is good." It wasn't a good year for egalitarians, was it?

Well, here's a funny coincidence. Income equality is the same now, after years of New Labour, as it was back then.

Nigel Lawson was Chancellor of the Exchequer; his daughter, Nigella, is now a popular chef (I adore her books, especially Feast). Thus the humor of the reference.

I long for society in which chefs are more important than politicians. This is a sign of progress.