Post by dodger on Aug 11, 2013 22:46:57 GMT
The best book yet on inequality's harmful effects on societies, 2 Jun 2009
This Will Podmore review is from: The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better (Hardcover)
This is the most important book yet on inequality's effects on society. The authors, Richard Wilkinson (Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham Medical School) and Kate Pickett (Senior Lecturer at York University) show how inequality affects the vast majority of the people in every country.
They show that the way to deal with society's problems is not to preach at individuals, or to blame young people, parents or teachers. As they write, "The evidence shows that reducing inequality is the best way of improving the quality of the social environment, and so the real quality of life, for all of us."
They point out that more equal societies have lower levels of mistrust, illness, status insecurity, violence and other stressors. "Social structures which create relationships based on inequality, inferiority and social exclusion ... inflict a great deal of social pain", worsening all society's problems. Over and again, the USA does worst, and Britain next worst.
As they prove, health and social problems are more common in countries with bigger income inequalities. Sweden has lower death rates than England and Wales for working age men and for infants, across all occupational groups. The death rate in its poorest 20 per cent is lower than in our richest 20 per cent! Obesity rates are lower in more equal societies.
Women's status and child wellbeing are better in more equal societies, which provide more paid maternity leave. In more equal societies, children experience less bullying, fights and conflict. More equal societies like Finland and Belgium have better educational levels across all social groups than Britain or the USA.
Drug use and mental illness are less common in more equal societies; so are teenage births and divorce. More equal countries have shorter working hours.
More equal societies also have more social mobility: of eight developed countries, the USA had least social mobility. US bankruptcy rates rose most in those states where inequality had risen most.
Less equal societies are more punitive. California has 360 people serving life sentences for shoplifting. In Britain, every day 40 people are sentenced to jail for shoplifting. Countries that spend less on education spend more on prisons. Since 1980, US spending on prisons has risen six times faster than spending on schools. The authors note, "More unequal countries also seem to be more belligerent internationally."
If Britain were as equal as Japan, Norway, Sweden or Finland, we would all live a year longer, we would have seven more weeks of holiday every year, mental illness, teenage births, obesity, imprisonment rates and murders would all be halved.
The authors conclude, "If you want to know why one country does better or worse than another, the first thing to look at is the extent of inequality. There is not one policy for reducing inequality in health or the educational performance of school children, and another for raising national standards of performance. Reducing inequality is the best way of doing both."
How do we achieve this more just society? To their credit, the authors don't suggest by just voting for it, or waiting for the government to do it for us. They write that we must "stand up to the tiny minority of the rich." We need to recruit to our trade unions, because the more trade union members there are, the more equal the society. If we want a better society, we will have to work for it.
This Will Podmore review is from: The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better (Hardcover)
This is the most important book yet on inequality's effects on society. The authors, Richard Wilkinson (Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham Medical School) and Kate Pickett (Senior Lecturer at York University) show how inequality affects the vast majority of the people in every country.
They show that the way to deal with society's problems is not to preach at individuals, or to blame young people, parents or teachers. As they write, "The evidence shows that reducing inequality is the best way of improving the quality of the social environment, and so the real quality of life, for all of us."
They point out that more equal societies have lower levels of mistrust, illness, status insecurity, violence and other stressors. "Social structures which create relationships based on inequality, inferiority and social exclusion ... inflict a great deal of social pain", worsening all society's problems. Over and again, the USA does worst, and Britain next worst.
As they prove, health and social problems are more common in countries with bigger income inequalities. Sweden has lower death rates than England and Wales for working age men and for infants, across all occupational groups. The death rate in its poorest 20 per cent is lower than in our richest 20 per cent! Obesity rates are lower in more equal societies.
Women's status and child wellbeing are better in more equal societies, which provide more paid maternity leave. In more equal societies, children experience less bullying, fights and conflict. More equal societies like Finland and Belgium have better educational levels across all social groups than Britain or the USA.
Drug use and mental illness are less common in more equal societies; so are teenage births and divorce. More equal countries have shorter working hours.
More equal societies also have more social mobility: of eight developed countries, the USA had least social mobility. US bankruptcy rates rose most in those states where inequality had risen most.
Less equal societies are more punitive. California has 360 people serving life sentences for shoplifting. In Britain, every day 40 people are sentenced to jail for shoplifting. Countries that spend less on education spend more on prisons. Since 1980, US spending on prisons has risen six times faster than spending on schools. The authors note, "More unequal countries also seem to be more belligerent internationally."
If Britain were as equal as Japan, Norway, Sweden or Finland, we would all live a year longer, we would have seven more weeks of holiday every year, mental illness, teenage births, obesity, imprisonment rates and murders would all be halved.
The authors conclude, "If you want to know why one country does better or worse than another, the first thing to look at is the extent of inequality. There is not one policy for reducing inequality in health or the educational performance of school children, and another for raising national standards of performance. Reducing inequality is the best way of doing both."
How do we achieve this more just society? To their credit, the authors don't suggest by just voting for it, or waiting for the government to do it for us. They write that we must "stand up to the tiny minority of the rich." We need to recruit to our trade unions, because the more trade union members there are, the more equal the society. If we want a better society, we will have to work for it.