Inequality is eating away at America's soul

[panzerfaust]

In a review of the book The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger Nicholas Kristof, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, notes: The gap between rich and poor in the US is vast and it's growing.

John Steinbeck observed that ''a sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ''.

That insight, now confirmed by epidemiological studies, is worth bearing in mind at a time of such polarising inequality that the wealthiest 1 per cent of Americans possess a greater collective net worth than the bottom 90 per cent.

There's growing evidence that the toll of this stunning inequality is not just economic but also is a melancholy of the soul. The upshot appears to be high rates of violent crime, high narcotics use, high teenage birth rates and even high rates of heart disease.

That's the argument of an important book by two distinguished British epidemiologists, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. They argue that gross inequality tears at the human psyche, creating anxiety, distrust and an array of mental and physical ailments - and they cite mountains of data to support their argument...

more, if you have the heart to read it ... http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/inequality-is-eating-away-at-americas-soul-20110103-19dqc.html

[Delphinus]

1. What a quote:

"a sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ".

I had never heard that, but boy is it something I felt ring true when reading it.

[RKP5637]

2. I feel that all the time. The core of America that made it great is

being carved out and destroyed. This will eventually be a hollow nation as this progresses. And the youth will be indoctrinated to accept this hollowness as the American Dream.

[dkf]

3. Actually isn't it more that the lower end is below subsistence levels?

If everyone had a middle class life and there were a few super rich, would everyone still be so unhappy? Would that not point to envy as a source of this unhappiness?

But if the bottom end can't afford to eat, that would be more desperation than envy.