A Self-Help Book for Societies

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



A Self-Help Book for Societies
By Sam Pizzigati

August 13, 2009 - 9:33pm ET


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By every measure that matters, relatively equal nations far outperform nations where income and wealth concentrate at the top. A powerful new analysis from the UK explores these contrasts — and explains them.

Huge numbers of people in the United States hold prescriptions for anti-depressants. Huge numbers of other Americans “self-medicate” — through illegal drugs and alcohol. Huge numbers of Americans, in other words, are feeling plenty of pain. Why? What's causing all this anguish?

Our conventional wisdom blames the grind of our always-on-the-go modern existence, the stresses and strains of life in the fast lane. The conventional wisdom, suggests a new book by British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, has that half-right. Stress is indeed doing us in. But that stress doesn't come from “modern life.”

That stress comes from inequality, the vast gaps in income and wealth that so divide us.

How can Wilkinson and Pickett be so sure? They've crunched the numbers. All of them, you might say. These two distinguished analysts, in The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, have identified nearly every social problem where reliable data let us compare how well — or poorly — the major nations of the developed world are delivering a decent quality of life. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009083313/self-help-book-societies

[Sentath]

1. The site linked at the bottom:

http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/ is a little short on remedies, but also useful.