February 11, 2010 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger
by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett
Social ills such as mental disorders, violence, poor health, and teenage pregnancy are more likely to occur in nations with deep income inequality, an analysis of 30 years of data from sources such as the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations finds.
The authors of the study, both British public-health researchers, write that health and social predicaments are not any better in the nation’s wealthiest countries than in poor ones because of the vast inequalities. With regard to the United States, the authors state that “the high average income level in the U.S. as a whole does nothing to reduce its health and social problems relative to other countries.”
Publisher: Bloomsbury Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10010; (646) 307-5858; http://www.bloomsburypress.com; 334 pages; $28.00; ISBN 978-1-60819-036-2.
