Not keeping up with the Joneses.

The article focuses on a paper by Jonathan Chapman to be presented at the 2019 conference of Economic History Society which examined the relationship between inequality and the generosity of welfare spending in Victorian England. Topics covered include comparison of the generosity and harshness of the conditions of poor-law relief, influence of the degree of inequality within the upper classes on rules for welfare handouts and outlook of the upper middle class on Britain's inheritance tax.