"You're losing that," he told The Business.Mr Stevenson is visiting Australia on a speaking circuit to drum up support for his global social cause of narrowing the inequality gap between the rich and the poor.

Key to this, he said, was restructuring the taxation systems of modern economies to take more money from the wealthy and less from lower-income earners.He said he also saw higher wages and policies to improve housing affordability as key to improving living standards for low- and middle-income households.

"I want to come and show Australians what is happening in the UK, what is happening in Europe," Mr Stevenson said.

"Public services being shut down, poverty exploding.

"That will happen [in Australia] unless we deal with inequality."

A frustrating mission

But Mr Stevenson admitted to being frustrated.

Despite having more than 1.5 million YouTube followers, he conceded that getting his message heard and acted on in the corridors of power was challenging.

"I think they're scared," he said, referring to MPs in Britain.

"I think they're kind of stuck in, what we would call in the UK, the Westminster bubble — their little politicians' bubble.

"They're scared about their donors."Mr Stevenson believed there was no financial incentive for the rich and powerful to engage in taxation reform to reduce inequality.

"See, the problem with an inequality crisis is it feels good for rich people," he said.

"And most politicians are in that community of rich people.

"I think they're out of touch."Mr Stevenson knows a lot about both the working class and the elite, because the 40-year-old has lived in both worlds.

"I come from a very poor background in East London, which is the poorest part of London," he told the ABC last year.

His first degree was from the London School of Economics.

But he quickly realised that top grades were not going to be enough to land him a big-money job in a trading room, without the impressive extracurricular CVs and high-level connections many of his wealthy classmates possessed.

So, he put his maths skills and street smarts to use in a game that a global banking giant, Citi, ran each year to select one of its interns.

He won the game and went on to become a highly successful trader.As Mr Stevenson tours the country, he wants to build his following and pressure local MPs to develop practical policies that will give more Australians access to housing.

"Holding the politician's feet to the fire, forcing this country to do something about inequality so that your kids and grandkids will have a fair go at having a family and buying a house," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-18/economist-gary-stevenson-warns-australia-losing-the-fair-go/106342536