The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger

The eye-opening and headline-generating UK bestseller that shows how one single factor�the gap between its richest and poorest members�can determine the health and well-being of a society. "This is a book with a big idea, big enough to change political thinking...In half a page [The Spirit Level] tells you more about the pain of inequality than any play or novel could."�Sunday Times (UK ) It is well established that in rich societies the poor have shorter lives and suffer more from almost every social problem. Now a groundbreaking book, based on thirty years' research, takes an important step past this idea. The Spirit Level shows that there is one common factor that links the healthiest and happiest societies: the degree of equality among their members. Not wealth; not resources; not culture, climate, diet, or system of government. Furthermore, more-unequal societies are bad for almost everyone within them�the well-off as well as the poor. The remarkable data assembled in The Spirit L