Kate Pickett

The Spirit Level

1. IDEA 1

   Unequal societies do worse

   Wilkinson and Pickett, epidemiologists, argue that among rich countries, those with bigger gaps between rich and poor suffer more social problems. They link inequality to poorer health, more crime and lower trust.

2. IDEA 2

   Comparing rich countries reveals patterns

   The authors compare wealthy nations such as Japan, Sweden, Britain and the United States. More unequal countries, in their data, score worse on many measures of well-being. They present this as a pattern across countries, not a one-off result.

3. IDEA 3

   American states show the same

   The authors find similar patterns among the fifty US states. States with greater inequality tend to have more problems, which supports their argument. Using states within one country lets them compare places that share a language and laws.

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