The Spirit Level
Why Equality Is Better for Everyone
-
-
4.1 • 18 Ratings
-
-
- £8.99
-
- £8.99
Publisher Description
Why do we mistrust people more in the UK than in Japan? Why do Americans have higher rates of teenage pregnancy than the French? What makes the Swedish thinner than the Greeks? The answer: inequality.
This groundbreaking book, based on years of research, provides hard evidence to show:
- How almost everything - from life expectancy to depression levels, violence to illiteracy - is affected not by how wealthy a society is, but how equal it is
- That societies with a bigger gap between rich and poor are bad for everyone in them - including the well-off
- How we can find positive solutions and move towards a happier, fairer future
Urgent, provocative and genuinely uplifting, The Spirit Level has been heralded as providing a new way of thinking about ourselves and our communities, and could change the way you see the world.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wilkinson and Pickett make an eloquent case that the income gap between a nation's richest and poorest is the most powerful indicator of a functioning and healthy society. Amid the statistics that support their argument (increasing income disparity sees corresponding spikes in homicide, obesity, drug use, mental illness, anxiety, teenage pregnancies, high school dropouts even incidents of playground bullying), the authors take an empathetic view of our ability to see beyond self-interest. While there are shades of Darwinism in the human hunt for status, there is evidence that the human brain with its distinctively large neocortex evolved the way it has because we were designed to be attentive to, depend on, and be depended on by others. Wilkinson and Pickett do not advocate one way or the other to close the equality gap. Government redistribution of wealth and market forces that create wealth can be equally effective, and the authors provide examples of both. How societies achieve equality, they argue, is less important than achieving it in the first place. Felicitous prose and fascinating findings make this essential reading.
Customer Reviews
Just read it..
Recommended to me by a friend over a year ago, I've only just got around to reading this book, mainly because I was reminded by a reference in another brilliant book I've just read, Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shaxson. Like Treasure Islands, this book is not a difficult read, but it's mind blowing stuff. There is so much evidence in The Spirit Level, modestly proposed, that it is difficult not to believe the central proposition: that we would *all* both rich and poor benefit by living in a more equal society. People with vested interests will attack it, of course; but I suggest you just read it and make up your own mind. For me, it has to be one of the most important books I've ever read and it will probably inform my political views for the rest of my life.
Chris Allen
this does not praise the eastern bloc economies, as one reviewer suggests. it does however bring together lots of statistics, mainly those gathered by the UN or OECD to illustrate that inequality in developed nations is a cancer we can all do without. buy it, share it, discuss it with anyone you can. then decide to act on what you know
The word
Denied by hardline rightwingers but actually quoted by Labour and Tories recently. This book talks of a future fair for all. How can that be a bad thing?