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Published on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 by TED
Richard Wilkinson: How Economic Inequality Harms Societies
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.
© 2011 TED
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Show AllMy most copy-and-pasted URL in a long, long time. I sure hope this is still up to assign to classes in February.
What an excellent presentation by Richard Wilkinson. One of the more interesting observations by Mr. Wilkinson was when he noted, perhaps only half facetiously, that if Americans wished to live the American Dream then they should move to Denmark.
For those who found this talk to be stimulating it is worth recommending that they read this terrific and most informative book that Mr. Wilkinson wrote in collaboration with Kate Pickett and that would be:
The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.
I agree, Erroll. It's a great book. I would also recommend checking out The Equality Trust where Wilkinson is co-director:
www.equalitytrust.org.uk
This is a great mission that lays out in numbers what a lot of people instinctively feel and then adds a lot more info that many of us may not even have thought about.