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A good read. I never read The Spirit Level, however I still enjoyed reading this book. It brings an stoic and scientific tone of writing to a subject often mired in emotion.The greatest strength of the book is the slow, logical (and often long) paths through complex problems common in society. If you ask people why they smoke, overwork, gamble or buy impractical sports cars, then they will often struggle to explain why they enjoy doing it. Linda Tirado tried (and i.m.o., failed miserably) to exp...
Goes some distance into explaining why we are where we are, right now, in the West, both as divided societies and as anguished individuals within these societies.A revelation on every page about the catastrophic damage that inequality (particularly status inequality) is inflicting upon our minds, health, behaviour and the environment.What I really like about Pickett and Wilkinson's angle, is that they are epidemiologists, scientists who study diseases, their outbreaks, spread, but also their pre...
If Capital in the Twenty-First Century is to picture the huge income and wealth gap existing in modern societies between the rich and the poor, then the current book displays the adverse implications arising for less egalitarian societies from such inequalities. The authors showcase through numerous statistical analyses the difference in performance by less egalitarian societies (e.g. the UK and the US) and their more egalitarian counterparts (e.g. Scandinavian countries or Japan) in a myriad of...
One of the most informative evolutionary psychology books I’ve read so far. It’s baffling to read even just the statistics of comparison between a more ‘equal’ society such as Sweden and a more ‘unequal’ society such as the US. Our minds were never intended for 21st century fast paced city lifestyle and now humanity must adapt or pay the consequences. Western liberal policy on capitalism needs to be restructured to avoid not just the economic inequality produced by pleasing shareholders but also...
First book I've read on the topic (explicitly) although it converges many issues that originate from inequality, such as mental health, status insecurity and anxiety, violence and crime, overconsumption/consumerism (to soothe status anxiety), and even touches on meritocracy and wealth hoarding. A very broad book on the topic. Its not too technical or dry- lots of graphs to support their points- with data mainly from US, UK, and other European countries. When I was finishing this I picked up The
This well-researched, accessibly written follow-up to "The Spirit Level" analyzes the negative impact that inequality has on society and how equitable policies have widespread benefits. In particular, they focus on five impacts of inequality: (1) it makes problems with social gradients worse (that is, problems related to social status get worse when income differences are bigger), (2) inequality reduces social mixing and social mobility, (3) inequality reduces social cohesion, and (4) inequality...
Wilkinson and Pickett have done it again! Another triumph of clear written scholarship of a very high standard. In this book the authors take the findings of The Spirit Level deeper - within us - looking at the psychological effects and stresses themselves. Readers (and no doubt critics) may find this harder to take: it is, after all, (for readers) difficult to accept that our inner states and outer behaviours are materialistically conditioned in the way analysed, while (for critics) it may look...
A great book on how class inequality affects our social and private lives, happiness, emotions, and mental health. Loved the level of detail and the amount of data and linked studies provided — it makes The Inner Level a very interesting read, and a new (to me) way to think about equality, reasons and ways to reduce consumerism, and progressive policies in general.
As the global economy stratifies into haves and have nots even further, the research and insight provided by this book are more necessary than ever. It’s hard to even imagine a counter argument to everything presented by the authors here; they’re so thorough in a relatively small amount of pages comparatively. More equal societies improve individual wellbeing by nearly every metric. One can only hope we will finally heed their advice over here in the States.
An evidence-driven look at social gradients (income inequality) and the various negative effects in society as inequality increases. Surprisingly easy to read, and feels very important in our times. In the everyday descriptions of status anxiety and the various ways we try to claim respect from others, there's plenty to relate to.
Evidence-driven arguments on how inequality results in psychological/sociological repercussions on societies (higher likelihood of mental illnesses, social stresses, crime; lower levels of trust, lower cognition development amongst children, a weaker society fabric; greater tendency for consumerism just to quote a few). I had some questions on the methodology/quantitative methods behind the studies/stats that the book quoted - questions related to correlation/causality, statistical significance
A follow up to the authors’ classic ‘The Spirit Level’ in which the links between the politics of inequality meet the psychology of social anxiety. A carefully researched and lucidly presented book for our unsettled times.This is my video review:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMqP2...
Apologies for the lengthy review/ramble. Wealth Inequality has long been a special interest (pet hate?) of mine, and Pickett and Wilkinson's first piece on the matter - The Spirit Level - was a hugely influential book on my thinking.To be honest I was slow to pick up Inner Level though, as I kinda thought that the thorough and robust Spirit Level hardly left anything more to present.I was completely wrong.The Inner level focusses much more on the personal effects of wealth inequality and expands...
Most people think it’s a good thing when there is equal opportunity, social mobility, and a strong sense of community. Those things increase when economic inequality declines, and they decrease when the income gap widens. It’s not just a random correlation. The wider the distance between rich and everyone else, the greater the opportunity gap between the rich and the rest, the harder it is to move up the social ladder as the rungs get farther and farther apart, and the less social cohesion and
More equal societies improve wellbeing. We learned this from the Spirit Level. This book shows how inequality gets under the skin. It explores the cultural and psychosocial mechanisms involved, as well as the evolutionary roots of our reaction to inequality. The book sometimes meanders off the path, and not all parts are equally convincing, but overall this is a great companion to the Spirit Level. My personal favorite as a person who spends quite a lot of time researching social problems was th...
In their last book they showed that more equal societies are better across the board – they are better educated, safer, have longer life expectancy, and are happier. In this book we are only looking at the impact of inequality on mental health, and it isn’t pretty. We have, of course, known this was the case for a very long time. Research into where people sit in the public service in the UK in the 1960s or thereabouts showed that the lower you were on the pecking order the more stress you were
What a great book that fluidly dissects the feelings of inadequacy, social stress, us vs them mentalities, and desires for consumption all as they relate to growing inequality. It's crazy how much it permeates in every facet of life, not just in lower classes but all classes. Inequality makes you stressed about your social standing and how others perceive you, negatively alters your belief about how you see yourself, brings about more mental illness and substance abuse due to feelings of inadequ...
Wealth inequality and what it does for countries. More inequality more disease, crime, and poor health, poor education, poor jobs.in the USA the largest income differences between rich and suffers from the highest homicide rates, the highest percentage of the population in prison, the highest rates of mental illness, the highest teenage birth rates, among the lowest life expectancy, low levels of child well being and low maths and literacy attainment. p. 2. . . greater inequality damages societi...
Besides my skeptism of some of the by-country data (how accurate the claims match reality) and over idealistic visions, the biggest struggle is with the writing. Very repetitive while not very organized in a logical order, with examples and data sometimes almost randomly thrown in. It feels like something some professor lectures in a classroom that you need to try really hard to concentrate on, and the points could have been made with maybe just 1/3 of the volume. Almost gave up several times an...
A pleasant, well-thought book.In a sense, it's normal that inequalities trigger all sort of problems like jealousy, more violence, imprisonment, and lack of trust.Our world is moving toward more connectivity and wholeness. Our consciousness understands that we are not fragmented: we need each other to succeed. Humanity cannot thrive and leave people behind.At the same time, inequalities always existed and it seems it always will. Inequality is the tension and the force we need to move forward. W...