Inequality and anxiety
Here’s a great quote from an article about The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s book on the social damage inflicted by inequality:
Once countries reach a certain level of wealth, what affects the citizenry is not the growth in GDP but the level of inequality. Man is a social primate and people who worry about their status and feel too keenly the humiliations their superiors inflict on them become anxious, mistrustful, isolated and stressed. This pattern holds whether you look at inequalities within different countries or between more equal or unequal states in the US or counties in Chile.
It looks like a book worth reading.
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You’re currently reading “Inequality and anxiety,” an entry on Bodhipaksa's blog, bodhi tree swaying
Published: Aug 08 2010
It is definitely a book worth reading. I have been recommending it to people since it came out and boring friends and relations with quotes from it. What amazes me is the fact that many people I talk to just don’t get it. They can’t see that a big differential between rich and poor makes for a bad society and (above a certain level) absolute wealth has little effect on peoples well being – even those in the richer half of an unequal society. i.e. you are generally better off being less rich in a more equal society than more rich in a less equal society – that is a statistical fact not an opinion. Your kids won’t get pregnant or use drugs, you will be able to walk down the street and people will be nice to you, you will be thinner, less likely to be depressed etc etc etc.
Much of the case is made on the Equality Trust website http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/ but I would recommend buying the book, reading it and passing it on to some one else.
OK – rant over