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How economic inequality harms societies | Richard Wilkinson
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How economic inequality harms societies | Richard Wilkinson

The Impact of Inequality on Society

The speaker discusses the long-standing belief that inequality is divisive and socially corrosive. They highlight the ability to now compare societies and examine the effects of inequality.

Inequality and Life Expectancy

  • Life expectancy does not significantly differ between rich and poor countries.
  • However, within societies, there are significant social gradients in health.
  • Income plays a crucial role in determining health outcomes within a society.

Income Differences and Social Problems

  • The speaker analyzes income differences in developed market democracies.
  • More unequal countries experience higher rates of social problems such as life expectancy, education scores, infant mortality rates, homicide rates, imprisonment rates, teenage birthrates, trust levels, obesity rates, mental illness rates, and social mobility.
  • There is a strong correlation between income inequality and these social problems.

Child Well-being

  • A study on child well-being shows that children fare worse in more unequal societies.
  • This relationship is closely tied to income inequality.

Importance of Relative Income

  • National income and economic growth no longer determine the average well-being of societies in developed countries.
  • Differences in relative income or social position have a significant impact on societal well-being.

Trust and Social Capital

  • Trust levels are higher in more equal societies compared to unequal ones.
  • Measures of involvement in community life or social capital also show similar relationships with inequality.

Mental Illness and Violence

  • Rates of mental illness vary significantly across societies based on income inequality.
  • Violence rates also show a correlation with inequality.

The Significance of Relative Income

The speaker emphasizes that national income and economic growth are less important for societal well-being than relative income. They provide examples related to trust levels as evidence for this claim.

Trust Levels

  • Trust levels are significantly higher in more equal societies compared to unequal ones.
  • This relationship is consistent across different measures of trust.

Mental Illness

  • Rates of mental illness vary across societies based on income inequality.
  • More unequal societies tend to have higher rates of mental illness.

Violence

  • Violence rates also show a correlation with income inequality.
  • The speaker presents data from American states and Canadian provinces to support this claim.

Replicating the Findings

The speaker discusses how they replicated their findings using data from American states, further supporting the relationship between income inequality and societal well-being.

Trust Levels in American States

  • Trust levels in American states show a similar scatterplot as seen in international data.
  • This provides further evidence for the relationship between trust and income inequality.

Mental Illness Rates in American States

  • Rates of mental illness in American states vary based on income inequality, similar to international findings.

Summary and Conclusion

The speaker summarizes the main findings of their research, highlighting the importance of relative income for societal well-being.

Main Findings

  • National income and economic growth are not significant determinants of average well-being in developed countries.
  • Relative income or social position within a society has a substantial impact on various social problems and well-being indicators.
  • Income inequality is closely correlated with social issues such as trust levels, mental illness rates, violence rates, and child well-being.

New Section

The speaker discusses the factors contributing to inequality and its impact on society, focusing on punitive sentencing, social mobility, and social gradients.

Factors Contributing to Inequality

  • Inequality is not solely about poverty; it also involves harsher sentencing and punitive measures.
  • More unequal societies are more likely to retain the death penalty.
  • High school dropout rates vary significantly between countries, with detrimental effects on utilizing the population's talents.

Social Mobility

  • Social mobility is a measure of income-based mobility, examining whether rich fathers have rich sons and poor fathers have poor sons.
  • Countries with higher inequality show a stronger correlation between fathers' income and their children's outcomes (e.g., UK, USA), while Scandinavian countries exhibit more social mobility.
  • Denmark stands out as a country with high social mobility, often referred to as "the American dream."

Impact of Social Gradients

  • Various problems are more common at the bottom of the social gradient in unequal countries. These problems range from being twice as common to ten times as common compared to more equal countries.
  • The human cost of these problems is significant and highlights the need for addressing social gradients.

Relationship Between Inequality and Outcomes

  • Graphical representations consistently demonstrate that more unequal countries tend to perform worse across various outcomes, while Nordic countries and Japan fare better. This suggests a general association between inequality and societal dysfunction.
  • Sweden and Japan differ in many aspects but share greater equality at different ends of the spectrum: Sweden achieves it through taxation and welfare state measures, while Japan starts with smaller income differences before tax.
  • The means of achieving greater equality may vary, but the important aspect is reaching a state of reduced inequality in developed market democracies.

New Section

The speaker explores how inequality affects individuals across different social hierarchies and discusses the psychosocial effects of inequality.

Impact on Individuals

  • Inequality does not solely affect the poor; it has implications for individuals at all levels of society.
  • Studies comparing more and less equal countries reveal differences in outcomes across various levels of the social hierarchy.
  • An example related to infant mortality shows that Sweden consistently outperforms Britain across all social classes, indicating some benefits even at the top end of society.

Psychosocial Effects

  • The speaker emphasizes the psychosocial effects of inequality, including feelings of superiority or inferiority, value or devaluation, and status competition driving consumerism.
  • Social-evaluative judgments increase in more unequal societies, leading to heightened concerns about how one is perceived by others in terms of attractiveness and intelligence.
  • Parallel research in social psychology highlights that stress hormones are most affected by tasks involving threats to self-esteem or social status where negative judgments from others are possible.

Data Selection and Global Relevance

  • The speaker addresses criticisms regarding data selection and emphasizes their commitment to including reliable data from all relevant sources without bias.
  • Over 200 studies on health in relation to income and equality exist beyond the countries discussed, highlighting the global relevance of this topic.

New Section

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of controlling for other factors and highlights that GNP per capita does not make a difference. They mention that other studies have used more sophisticated methods to control for poverty and education.

Controlling for Other Factors

  • The speaker explains that controlling for other factors is important in understanding causality.
  • They mention that GNP per capita has been shown to have no impact on the outcome.
  • Other studies in the literature have used more advanced methods to control for variables such as poverty and education.

New Section

This section focuses on the concept of causality and how correlation alone does not prove causation. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding causal links in various outcomes, particularly chronic health issues influenced by chronic stress from social sources.

Understanding Causality

  • The speaker highlights that correlation does not imply causation.
  • They explain that there is a clear understanding of causal links in certain outcomes.
  • Chronic stress from social sources has been identified as a significant driver of health issues, affecting the immune system and cardiovascular system.
  • Inequality can lead to increased violence due to people feeling looked down upon.

New Section

This section discusses the need to address both pre-tax and post-tax factors in order to tackle inequality effectively. The speaker emphasizes the importance of constraining income at the top and making bosses accountable to their employees.

Addressing Inequality

  • To address inequality, it is necessary to consider both pre-tax and post-tax factors.
  • Constraining income at the top, including bonuses, is crucial.
  • Making bosses accountable to their employees is an important step towards reducing inequality.

New Section

This section concludes the transcript by emphasizing that reducing income differences can improve the overall quality of human life.

Reducing Income Differences

  • The speaker states that improving the real quality of human life is possible by reducing income differences.
  • They highlight the importance of addressing inequality and its impact on society.
  • By reducing income disparities, we gain a better understanding and control over societal issues.
Channel: TED
Video description

http://www.ted.com We feel instinctively that societies with huge income gaps are somehow going wrong. Richard Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows what gets worse when rich and poor are too far apart: real effects on health, lifespan, even such basic values as trust. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.