Envy: the worst British disease

“Schadenfreude is a German word, but really the British should have invented it,” says Luke Johnson. We seem to “take more delight in the misery of others” – and particularly that of successful people – than any other country. Witness all the “gloating comments” about the struggles of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants. Does someone who has transformed Britain’s food culture and created thousands of jobs really deserve such venom? The problem lies in our politics of envy. “The basis of socialism has always been hatred towards the rich and successful” – and resentment is now the driving force of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, which attacks the City, conveniently forgetting that financial services account for 2.2 million jobs and some £72bn of taxes. Almost two-thirds of income tax in 2016-17 was paid by the top 10% of earners, demonstrating that the British economy is already heavily redistributive, not some “extreme form of capitalism”. “Busy people have no time for envy: they participate rather than peering at the world as passive observers.” We need more entrepreneurs like Jamie Oliver, and a culture that supports them.