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.)

The root cause to most problems?

Inequality is the root cause to almost all common social problems in the developed countries. That is the message in a new book: The Spirit Level – Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better (Allen Lane 2009). The authors, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, claim that countries with less inequality, such as Sweden, also have less social problems than more unequal societies such as United States or United Kingdom.

Wilkinson and Pickett also claim that it’s not only the poor within a society that suffer from those problems but also the well-to-do. Those with higher incomes in more equal societies have for example a longer life expectancy than similar people in more unequal countries. Conclusion: inequality seems to have a direct negative impact on all groups in a society.

I will probably have reason to write more about this book later, but here are two links to try out:
– Equality Trust
– The Guardian