Book Review: The Spirit Level

I'm preparing a book review for InTouch and thought I'd post a draft for comment. Has anyone read it? I would love to hear your views.

The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. Reviewed by Deborah Gleeson.

Since finishing my thesis a few months ago, I haven't been tempted to read many books, but this was hard to put down. I thought it would be important but dry, but I found it a good read, with surprising and interesting things on just about every page.

The main argument of the book is a simple one. Amongst rich countries, unequal societies do worse by almost every social and health measure. More unequal societies are bad for (almost) everyone - for the more well off as well as for the poor.

Using clear arguments in plain language, backed up by easy to understand charts, Wilkinson and Pickett bring together data showing associations between income inequality and many health and social problems, including poor health, violence, mental illness and drug use, obesity, teenage pregnancy, high rates of imprisonment, and poor educational performance.

What excited me most about this book, apart from the sheer weight of the evidence, was the way the authors have made it so understandable and quotable. It brings social epidemiology - and much more importantly, the damaging effects of inequality - into the public domain.

Wilkinson and Pickett challenge the myth that economic growth leads to improvements in quality of life. One of the first charts in the book shows how life expectancy increases rapidly during the early stages of economic development, but as countries get richer, the relationship between economic growth and life expectancy disappears.

One of the most important messages of this book is that reducing carbon emissions means limiting economic growth in rich countries - and that this can be done by reducing inequalities. They argue convincingly that reducing inequalities can improve quality of life without requiring further economic growth, and that greater inequality can also foster the public-spiritedness that we need to be able to develop sustainable economies.

I had two frustrations with the book. First, the authors do not have a great deal to say about the far more serious issue, in my view, of inequalities between countries, and the millions of people who live in absolute poverty. Their analysis is based only on rich countries. While their aim is to inform social movements directed to more equal societies, I think social movements must focus on, and involve, the global South as a first priority.

Second, I found the concluding section of the book vaguely dissatisfying. The authors argue that addressing inequalities requires gradual transformation rather than an overhaul of current economic systems. While it might be more realistic than revolution, I'm not sure that this approach adequately addresses the entrenched power relations that work against such transformations.

For a more thoughtful and interesting critique, see David Runciman's review in the London Review of Books.