Archive for February 3rd, 2010
Putting Politics Back into the Equality Debate: The Limits of ‘The Spirit Level’
Gerry Hassan
The Guardian Comment, February 3rd 2010
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett are right to talk about inequality (Guardian, January 30th) and do so at length in ‘The Spirit Level’, a debate which seems to have captured something about the anxieties and fears we have about modern Britain and life. Yet, despite its popularity and the claims of its authors, ‘The Spirit Level’ does not offer a new egalitarian credo, and instead leaves crucial areas unexplored.
Wilkinson and Pickett pose that inequality hurts and harms all of us and set out to show across a range of international examples that more equal affluent countries are happier, more secure and have a better quality of life.
In a 330 page book on inequality the authors surprisingly say next to nothing about what factors created the rising tide of inequality that we have witnessed these last few decades. Not only that, they take their argument that rising inequality has occurred as proven and don’t offer any historical examination even of the recent past. Read the rest of this entry »
