Economist Branko Milanovic, the author of "Global Inequality" (Harvard University Press), said that what exists today is a "protest vote" against the lack of coherent programs to staunch the shrinking middle class. According to him, the phenomenon has become structural and may soon eliminate the "main driver" of economic growth.

"In an extreme example, there would be demand for a Maserati car on the one hand, and the immense demand for rice and bread on the other. This does not mean that there will be no growth, but it will be of a different kind."

For Martin Wolf, a chief commentator for the British Financial Times, answers like brexit, Trump and other radical ideas "will do nothing to solve the problem." "In fact, it will only make things worse by encouraging people to blame some other group, often more vulnerable," Wolf said, referring to immigration.

Among all regions of the world, however, it is in Western Europe that income inequality still grows more slowly, although it has jumped significantly since the 1980s -mainly because of the increasing accumulation at the top.

In the United Kingdom, the wealthiest 1% has doubled its share of national income since the 80s, and today makes up 12% of the total, according to the Global Inequality Report by economist Thomas Piketty and his team at the Paris School of Economics.

Below the top, however, the income of 500 thousand Britons have fallen in the last five years, and today they live on less than 60% of the national average monthly income.

They are now 4 million workers (1 in 8) with a monthly income of less than 1,100 pounds (US$ 1,370), which classifies them as poor, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation based on the criteria of the European Union. This impoverishment coincided with cuts of more than 30 billion pounds (US$ 37 billion) in social benefits in the UK since 2010.

This has helped to double, for example, the demand for the Food Banks among the British since 2013.

"In 2018, we helped nearly 8,000 people. Seven years ago, when we started, there were a hundred," said Lisa Leunig, 52, head of the Oldham Food Bank.

Across the UK, 1.4 million of these gift baskets were distributed only last year -almost twice as many as five years ago.

When Folha visited the Oldham Food Bank, Katherine Storor, 33, was there with her son. A former employee of a weaving shop that closed, she is now in a store earning 250 pounds (US$ 312) per week, and she resorts to the food bank in emergencies.

Katherine says she lives with her mother because she can not rent a house in the city for less than 600 pounds (US$ 750) a month.