The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone  Richard
Wilkinson + Kate Pickett  Penguin 2009 A book review by Danny
Yee © 2010 Coming from a background in epidemiology and public
health, in The Spirit Level Wilkinson and Pickett look to
economic data to find explanations for the persistent health and
social problems of wealthy countries, and for the differences
between them.  Part one presents their basic argument. Above a
certain level, further increases in material wealth — income per
person — are no longer correlated with improvements in child
well-being, health, social trust, and so forth. Instead, these
are strongly correlated with income equality, while inequality
is correlated with crime levels, teenage births, obesity, and
other social problems. This holds in comparisons across some two
dozen of the world's wealthiest countries, and across the fifty
states of the United States.  A possible causal mechanism lies
in the psychological effects of social inequality. It is notable
that even the wea