Amid all the talk of heavy lifting and “unsustainable” lifestyles, the rich seem to be sustaining themselves pretty well.

Speaking at the National Press Club in March, Labor MP and former professor of economics Andrew Leigh said inequality has risen dramatically in the last generation: “To put this in stark terms: since 1975, real wages for the bottom 10th have risen 15 per cent, while wages for the top 10th have risen 59 per cent.”

In Australia, the richest 50 people have more wealth than the bottom 2 million. The richest three people have more wealth than the bottom 1 million.

“Put another way, if cleaners and checkout operators had enjoyed the same rate of wage growth as financial dealers and anaesthetists, those low wage workers would be earning an extra $14,000 a year”, said Leigh.

That’s an incredible amount of money for the poor and workers living on the minimum wage; it is more than the annual sum of the Newstart payment.

A 2009 Productivity Commission report noted that since 1993, the average earnings of ASX 100 chief executives has risen from $1 million (17 times average earnings) to $3 million (42 times average earnings).

So much for everyone pulling their weight, pitching in or whatever tired cliché Joe Hockey comes out with next to justify ripping off the rest of us.