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How Inequality Kills
antrim |
miscellaneous |
opinion/analysis
Saturday September 10, 2005 00:12 by kup
Does inequality of wealth really matter?, Richard Wilkinson Professor of sociology, has been researching and gathering evidence of the damage done by extreme inequality between the rich and the poor. As in todays society as the rich get richer, whilst the poor get even poorer. Despite however rich a country is, that country will be more dysfunctional, violent, sick and depressed if the wealth gap between the social classes grows too wide. In the UK, infant mortality rates for the poor are rising, as life expectancy rates of the poor fall. |
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Jump To Comment: 1Actually the United States doesn't have the lowest life expectancy in the developed world. Denmark holds that 'honour'. As Denmark is one of the most 'equal' countries in the world, it rather blows his theory. Perhaps Wilkinson could come up with some explanation for this. However, If the component countries of the United Kingdom were treated separately, Scotland would have the lowest life expectancy, even lower than in Denmark. Life expectancy in Ireland is now almost 2 years higher than in Scotland or Denmark. Since Ireland is more 'unequal' than either Scotland of Denmark (at least according to leftists' definition of the term), perhaps Wilkinson could come up with some explanation for this. The countries with the highest life expectancy in the Western world are Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden. Of these, only Sweden ranks high in the various 'equality' league tables. Only last week the UN Human Development Report found Italy to be among the three most 'unequal' countries in the developed world, yet it has one of the highest life expectancies, nearly 4 years higher than in Denmark, which the same UN Report found to be among the three most 'equal' countries. Perhaps Wilkinson could come up with some explanation for this. Before the demise of socialism in eastern Europe, life expectancy in the eastern bloc countries was staggeringly lower than in the capitalist counties of western Europe, almost 8 years lower on average in fact. This was true even where the countries were near neighbours with the same diet and climate, e.g in 1989 life expectancy in Bulgaria was 10 years lower than in Greece, life expectancy in Hungary was 8 years lower than in Austria. Perhaps Wilkinson could come up with some explanation for this.