”Vår beskärda del”

är titeln på en ny bok om klimat-krisen som jag idag fått i handen. Den är skriven av David Jonstad och utgiven av Ordfront. Jag har ännu bara börjat läsa den, men så här långt är den mycket lovande, en utmärkt bok faktiskt. Författaren jämför bland annat klimat-krisen med hur USA, Storbritannien och Sverige hanterade problemen med försörjningen under andra världskriget. Slutsatsen är att människor inte har några problem med att acceptera drastiska åtgärder – som till exempel ransoneringar – bara man inser lägets allvar, tror att åtgärderna hjälper och att bördorna fördelas rättvist mellan alla medborgare.

P.S: På min hemsida (www.torepersson.se) kan du på sidan om Klimat-förändring få en lättläst översikt över klimat-frågan.

More equality better for all

The most progressive political vision for a country should be to reduce the gaps in society. Because it is the gaps between rich and poor that create our modern social problems – and those problems also fall upon the more well-to-do.

According to the book ”Spirit Level – Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better” (which I first presented at March 25) all groups in society will be affected by higher inequality. People in more equal societies, like Sweden, do better than people in more unequal societies, like the UK. Their health is better, so is life expectancy, infant mortality, obesity, mental illness etc...

In poor countries life expectancy etc goes up with the economic development. However, when the economy has reached a higher level there is no longer a correlation between life expectancy and income. That is the case among the thirty or so richest countries in the world.

Among those rich countries there is instead a strong correlation between life expectancy etc and the rate of inequality. In ”Spirit Level” inequality is determined as how much richer the richest 20 per cent of a society is compared to the poorest 20 per cent. In more unequal societies, like the UK and USA, the richest 20 per cent are 8 to 9 times richer than the poorest. In more equal societies, like Japan and Sweden, the richest 20 per cent are about 4 times richer.

What about the trends? Unfortunately, not encouraging. Inequality seems to be more popular than equality, inequality has risen in most developed countries during recent decades. In the UK inequality went up dramatically during Margaret Thatcher and has been high since then. In Sweden, which is much more equal, the income gaps have also widened since the early 1990s.

Most countries in the world need a lot of economic growth, so they can reach the level of standard that we in the rich world enjoy. However, have we in the rich countries reached the end of what economic growth can do for us? Is it time to shift focus from more growth to more equality?

(”Spirit Level – Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better” by Richard Wilkinson dan Kate Picket, Alen Lane 2009.)