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    The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger
    The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger
    The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger

    Written by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson

    Narrated by Clive Chafer

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    It is a well-established fact that in rich societies the poor
    have shorter lives and suffer more from almost every social problem. The Spirit Level,
    based on thirty years of research, takes this truth a step further. One
    common factor links the healthiest and happiest societies: the degree
    of equality among their members. Further, more unequal societies are bad for everyone within them-the rich and middle class as well as the poor.The remarkable data assembled in The Spirit Level
    exposes stark differences, not only among the nations of the first
    world but even within America's fifty states. Almost every modern social
    problem-poor health, violence, lack of community life, teen pregnancy,
    mental illness-is more likely to occur in a less-equal society.Renowned
    researchers Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett lay bare the
    contradictions between material success and social failure in the
    developed world. But they do not merely tell us what's wrong. They offer
    a way toward a new political outlook, shifting from self-interested
    consumerism to a friendlier, more sustainable society.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateNov 21, 2011
    ISBN9781452675053
    Author

    Kate Pickett

    Kate Pickett is a Senior Lecturer at the University of York and a National Institute for Health Research Career Scientist. She studied physical anthropology at Cambridge, nutritional sciences at Cornell and epidemiology at Berkeley before spending four years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago.

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    Reviews for The Spirit Level

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    • 5/5
      I can't fault the premise of this book - that the most equal societies are the best for everyone at all levels of society. I'd already come to this conclusion after reading a whole bunch of feminist stuff, in which I have seen that societies in which women have the most power just happen to be the best for everyone, including men.

      But this book highlights many of the less expected ways in which inequality of income benefits society. There are intuitive consequences of equality, like less incarceration, for instance. But I'd never connected equality right back to bullying in schools, nor to obesity, for that matter.

      On the topic of women and equality, Japan was consistently noted as an outlier in this respect, being both an egalitarian society and a society in which women are not equal with men. Of course, this is measured by female participation in politics and the workforce.

      Although no outsider would ever be able to say that they 'understand Japan', I do have experience with that country -- enough to know that the role of women is different from that in the West, and I understand that Japanese housewives and mothers do have a certain status that is not afforded Western women who choose that for ourselves. In the West, mother is not a recognised occupation. We're expected to do more than that -- everything (as explained by Virginia Haussegger in Wonder Woman, as it happens, which I just read.)

      I'm not suggesting that I desire the Japanese model of 'female equality' over here in the West, but it is simplistic to put Japan in the same category as other countries with similar low rates of women in powerful occupations. Women in Japan have plenty of power and respect. It's just not where we might expect to find it. Likewise, Western women don't have as much power as we like to think we do, but that's a story for a different time.

      To my mind, this makes Japan less of an outlier than the authors suggest, and only goes to further the cause for equality.
    • 4/5
      Uses a number of data supported examples to demonstrate that poorer societal outcomes result in part from greater inequality (not just for the poor but for all quartiles of wealth). They hypothesise that this results from changes to trust and social connectedness. This section had too much evolutionary psychology for me (not that convinced in science that cannot make predictions). Suggested methods for improving equality of societies.
    • 3/5
      Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett's The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone is the most influential and talked-about book on society in the last decade - now updated with a new chapter on the controversy the book has ignited. 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 Australians? The answer: inequality. This groundbreaking book, based on years of research, provides hard evidence to show: How almost everything - from life expectancy to mental illness, 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. 'A big idea, big enough to change political thinking' Guardian 'A remarkable new book ... the implications are profound' Will Hutton, Observer 'The evidence is hard to dispute' Economist Richard Wilkinson studied economic history at the London School of Economics before training in epidemiology and is Professor Emeritus at the University of Nottingham Medical School and Honorary Professor at University College London. Kate Pickett is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of York and a National Institute for Health Research Career Scientist. Her work with Richard Wilkinson on The Spirit Level was shortlisted for Research Project of the Year 2009 by the Times Higher Education Supplement, and their book was chosen as one of the Top Ten Books of the Decade by the New Statesman.
    • 5/5
      The evidence and argumentation is strong in this one. The core idea is simple and powerful, it reveals itself in many aspects of many different societies with very different institutional systems. The core idea is that humans long for better conditions, not only in the sense of absolute material conditions (so, please stop repeating "but hey, global poverty levels are down, time to celebrate!", because nobody is arguing against that), but in the sense of relative psychological and sociological security, solidarity, and trust, achieved by low level of inequality.The question is simple: if you really had the choice, what kind of society would you like to live in? A society where there's more trust, more solidarity, better mental and physiological health, less crime, and less depression and anxiety, or a society that is worse in those aspects? It is not very difficult to come up with an answer. The authors take a lot of data sets and many different countries, after which they proceed to show the relationships between the aspects above and inequality levels. Their conclusion is clear: having huge levels of inequality does not lead to very healthy societies. Correlation is of course not causation, and the book has a separate chapter discussing finer points that lead to its conclusions. Taken together with another book, "Inequality: What Can Be Done?", the time is overdue to focus our perspective on helping each other and ourselves to have healthier environments, both mentally and physically, worth living in. Many great accomplishments start with a small, simple, and powerful idea; and if we'll have a better future, then this book will be among the valuable few that put forward the idea of "less inequality, healthier society".
    • 4/5
      Uses a number of data supported examples to demonstrate that poorer societal outcomes result in part from greater inequality (not just for the poor but for all quartiles of wealth). They hypothesise that this results from changes to trust and social connectedness. This section had too much evolutionary psychology for me (not that convinced in science that cannot make predictions). Suggested methods for improving equality of societies.
    • 5/5
      I have heard people raving about this book for some time. I did not bother to read it because I felt that I already knew that equality was better than the alternative and that reading another moralising book wasn't going to be of much value.I WAS WRONG on just about every account. This is the best book that I have read in a long time. It is far from being a glib peon to 'being nice' and, I strongly recommend that any of you who have not read it yet, so do.The first thing that one notices is that it doesn't talk about what it would be nice, were we to do. The whole perspective of this book is about what is best for each of us; be we unemployed and homeless or multimillionaire heads of industry; and that is the key. This book clearly demonstrates that greater equality is to all our advantage.The second thing to note about this book, is that it is not based upon opinion. It is packed with graphs produced from the official statistics of as many countries as are willing to release their records to the public. Now, I know the old saying, about "lies, d**n lies and statistics" but, in this instance, the data were not collected by the authors, and comparisons are like for like: i.e. if the argument is advanced that more people are imprisoned in countries with greater variation between highest and lowest paid personnel, ALL countries figures are included, not a selection that are convenient.The book does come to some conclusions, not so to do, would surely have been a cop out, but these have been carefully balanced so that it is not an endorsement of either traditional left or right wing politics. We are not presented with "the World must do this or that"; suggestions as to different routes that might lead to a better place are included. Of course, reading this, or any other book does not give one all the solutions, but what it does do, is change one's perspective on the problem and show the futility of the us and them approach so commonly in use today.
    • 5/5
      Less concrete when compare to "The Price of Inequality" but spread the same message in a different way.Chats and chats and chats that compare why people living in less equality would make them less happy, less trusting. Just started on the first 4 chapters, already like it. Money mean less for a society when it already well fed. But then you are less happy when you are much poorer than your neighbors. Overall, it sucks for all people when society is too unequal. Will come back after I read a few more chapters.
    • 2/5
      The ideas in this book are very interesting, but unfortunately the book itself is poorly written. It would be a better read if it just limited itself to the facts and left out all the vague explanations of the reasons why the facts are the way they are.
    • 4/5
      This is a must read book for everyone hence the rating. I would like to unreservedly recommend it but I cannot. It is a hard read, I kept having to put the book down because my head was hurting too much from all the blows. To say it is evangelical would be an understatement. The authors have their soap box and they are single minded in ensuring the message does not escape anyone. But what an important message, the greater the income inequality the more symptoms of a sick social malaise there are. You name it, violence, mistrust, totalitarianism, obesity, suicide, prison population, under performing children and more much more are all shown to increase the more unequal a society becomes. Contrary to common presumptions, egalitarianism is not a cranky far left fantasy but a very central core community spirit we all aspire to.Right, got the message but the book bangs on and on, showing more and more statistics that prove incontrovertibly their message. This is where I begin to lose it. When evangelicals thump I tend to get wary and start to look for alternative scenarios. I am not in a position to query let alone challenge their presentation of statistics, it all looks so overwhelming convincing. I not able to nitpick about data spreads, median lines, angles or scale but have to leave that to those that understand. When data is so overwhelming then there just has to be an alternative view. None is offered. There has to be a counter approach, there has to be historical evidence that gainsays their gospel, there has to be recent changes that run counter to their all encompassing answer, inequality. It is human nature to screw up and overlook the alternate view point.Nethertheless the message is highly important with significant implications for our society, where it is and what has to happen. We should all get our minds around the issues raised. It was with some relief when three quarters of the way through the book suddenly changed tack and began to widen its view and looked in a more expansive way as to how their findings work and are relevant. Great, I could begin to enjoy the read again. Unfortunately they found a new soap box, climate change and began again to thump away. Well meaning, earnest, very serious in intent and purpose. Maybe just not gifted writers for the masses. Yet clearly that was their intended audience with a book having scholarly origins but dumbed down for an all to read. Pity and equally well-done. At least they have made digestible the indigestible and in doing so given access to highly significant findings. Inequality damages us all, poor and the rich alike.In their new edition postscript they do try to respond to all the criticisms aimed at their studies. But for me it is too much of the converted cherry picking what they choose to respond to, what to ignore and appeals to overwhelming numbers supporting the cause. Despite all of what I have said, I urge you, do please read this book. Put it down and then reflect. You may well find it to says deeply significant things about our society and the problems you feel but cannot isolate and expound. It did for me.
    • 2/5
      The thesis of this book is that greater equality creates a better society is a no-brainer for me. But we live in an age where there are some who promote greater inequality and deny the need for society at all. The authors richly illustrate the advantages of equality and the disadvantages of inequality in our world. This is probably not a work to listen to as an audiobook as I think for my mind it requires greater attention and study.
    • 2/5
      Thought provoking, but intensely frustrating book. Proves that inequality has many bad consequences, but is uninterested in why inequality exists. Advocates a grass-roots movement of pro-equality networking groups and writing letters to the newspaper.
    • 3/5
      The main premise of this book is that, once countries have reached a basic level of prosperity, those that have a more equal distribution of wealth do better than those with large inequalities. Specifically, everyone (the poor, the middle class and the rich) are better off in more equal socieities. While that basic argument was clear, I had difficulty at times connecting the data to the argument. The book also ignored gender differences, and cultural differences among countries and within heterogenous societies. Nice idea, supported with lots of data but not convincingly argued.
    • 1/5
      Utter bilge from before the first page. I picked this up as it has gained some media prominence as being "important", or even more worryingly as a book which is influencing political thought at this moment of retrenchment following the financial crises. However it is clear from the introductory notes (which "explain" how lines of best-fit are to be read, and urge the reader to take it on trust that their best-fit lines are correct and meaningful) that this book is actually an attempt to justify an ideological position by selectively presenting a mass of sociological data. The data points (and sets) reveal massive selection bias, and reference to the original sources (OECD, UN etc) shows that even the data which is presented is often presented disingenuously.Edward Tufte would have a field-day dissecting this book. Do not read. If your local MP appears to have read it, be afraid.
    • 4/5
      A compelling statement of the problem, but their proposed solutions are fairly thin sauce. Nothing for it but to move to Scandinavia, apparently!
    • 3/5
      Using cross-country comparisons and a wealth of data, Wilkinson and Pickett make a strong argument for how and why a more equal distribution of wealth create a happier and healthier society. This book is important not only because it makes the case that quality of life is improved for those in disadvantaged positions when a society is more equal (a pretty simple argument to support) but because it also argues that quality of life (read: happiness and satisfaction, at least) for those in positions of economic power in more equal societies is greater than in highly unequal societies. My only gripes about this book are its rather constant reference to charts and graphs embedded in the text, and its reliance on explaining the data instead of discussing the concepts.
    • 4/5
      As a current graduate student in peace studies and conflict resolution, one would be forgiven for thinking that I already agree with many of the arguments which drive this book. That is, that societies with greater levels of mutual equality between all of their members possess fewer instances of conflict and structural weaknesses in social and state institutions. That being said though, this work comes to the table with an arsenal of statistics and research to drive its point home and stave off a number of anticipated responses from doubters. Charts and tables are common accessories to the writing, to provide as many opportunities as possible for visual representations of the research to remain present in the mind of the reader.If anything, my only real complaint with the book, enough so that it is worth a whole point deduction, is the density of it all. This is an important book certainly, but it certainly does not possess the slickness of little witticisms and other such accoutrements that would be necessary for most folks to consider giving it a read. It works as an excellent textbook, and the information contained within makes some seriously important arguments, but it will be incredibly difficult for one to convince a friend or family member to borrow or buy it.
    • 5/5
      The Spirit Level is one of the few books, similar for example to Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, that will blow your mind. Its simple message that a more equal society is a better society, even for the rich, strikes deep. Reading some of the reviews here and at Amazon, this simple truth hurts some too much. So if you are one of the USA! USA! USA! crowd or if you think obesity, diabetes or poverty are beautiful, then this book is not for you. Reality has a liberal bias.Some conservatives have tried to undermine the message by mixing in non-OECD (i.e. non-rich) countries into their sample. Which is completely beside the point. Naturally, life in the United States of America is better than in most African nations or in Russia. But isn't it a rather weak claim to say that the US is better than a Second or Third World nation. Among First World nations, the (peer reviewed) statistics presented by the authors conclusively show that more equal societies score better in whatever goal one targets (health, crime, social mobility, innovation, etc.). It used to be different: The American founding fathers were deeply shocked seeing the unequal societies in Europe. The US used to be a beacon of equality and liberty (this cherished image instead of reality still lingers in many a conservative mind).The authors could also have used the economic concept of marginal utility. A family with food insecurity will have much greater benefit from an extra one thousand dollars than a hedge fund billionaire. While the book is tight in making its case that more equality is better, it fails to develop a case how to revert the damaging policies of the Reagan revolution. Barack Obama's craven surrender in prolonging the wasteful, unpaid for Bush cronies tax relief shows how difficult it is to get this simple message across in some are more equal NewSpeak United States of America.Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      I loved reading this book because it confirmed for me much of what I had suspected, and suggested that my views were supported by the data. In reading the reviews here though, I fear I may have been too uncritical, and I intend to reread the book with a mind on the comments below.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this book and I'd reccomend it to everyone. The book is very accessible and is a very enjoyable introduction to sociology. This is the kind of book that does what a good read should; it has the capacity to change the way you think. This comes both as a result of its simple methodology and the massive implications of its findings. Although there have been many criticisms of the text, this is just testimony to how important the ideas are. In reality even the criticisms are worth reading. This book is great because its a real talking point.
    • 5/5
      The Spirit Level comes highly recommended from yours truly. The book draws up the efforts of decade long research that has gone into collecting evidence which shows that: equality is -the one- axis in society upon which all other major ones rest. To say it the blunt way; no matter how well of the rich are off in an unequal society (USA) their birth death rates are still miles above the poorest segment of the population in a more equal society (Sweden) (!). Equality is that which upon everything from mentioned birth-death-rates to crime and health is hinged. Anyone wishing to go into political office in one form or another (say we all do a bit when we go to voting booth..) should read this book.
    • 4/5
      This is a book which hopes, by the laying out of a lot of data, particularly in thr form of charts, to pesuade its readers that equality should be a prime goal for every society. The United States and to a considerably lesser degree, other English-speaking countries, tend to show up as being less equal than other Western societies and Japan. So, one can almost see a bias here, even if the the bias is a reflection of truth. In the United States, the ideal of liberty very much trumps the ideal of equality. Much health care debate in the U.S. revolves around issues of being able to choose ones own doctors, the protection of previous health plans, the presumption that the federal government canot be competent, etc. The fairness or widespread coverage of plans is less discussed. "The Spirit Level" does not really address this political cultural divide very well, although I agree with the technical analysis as presented in the book.I particularly resonated with the chaper on Imprisonment and Punishment. The U.S. spends enormous resources on incarceration with little effective results.Another issue not well dealt with is that of how immigrants fare in the U.S. I can see where the U.S. has a greater sense of fraternity with immigrants than most other countries have (the possible exception is illegal Mexican immigrants).Another issue to look at is how well do incentives work when the playing field becomes very level. This book really does not deal with ideals like inspiration and inventiveness, which are highly valued in the U.S.The book is well researched, and I love all the charts, even when there sometimes seems to be an arcane selectivess to some of them.
    • 3/5
      In The Spirit Level, authors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett claim that economic inequality among members of a society leads to many problems including poorer health and shorter life expectancy, more crime and imprisonment, higher rates of mental illness, drug abuse, and obesity, as well as a host of other problems. Inequality negatively impacts all levels of society – the poor, the wealthy and the middle class.The authors include substantial data to support their assertions. In Part One, “Material Success, Social Failure" they address the current condition of the developed world. In Part Two, “The Costs of Inequality”, separate chapters are devoted to each problem area. In Part Three, “A Better Society”, the authors outline strategies that could be used to promote greater economic equality. They emphasize that how a society becomes more equal is less important than the fact that it actually does become more equal.The Spirit Level is an interesting and convincing book. Readers will be hard pressed to deny the correlation between economic inequality and negative social outcomes. One of the most satisfying aspects of the book is that it offers solutions rather than merely highlight problems. The authors are optimistic that the problems can be solved. They encourage us to take action.
    • 5/5
      The most dramatic information in this book is how badly the US does (and Portugal) among the developed nations by any rating, infant deaths to life expectancy, etc. but that is not new. What is interesting is how this effects the rich, rich people would actually be better off in a more egalitarian societies.