ABSTRACT
Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s latest book, The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better
for Everyone, has caught the attention of academics and policymakers and stimulated
debate across the left-right political spectrum. Interest in income inequality has remained
unabated since the publication of Wilkinson’s previous volume, Unhealthy Societies: The
Afflictions of Inequality. While both books detail the negative health effects of income
inequality, The Spirit Level expands the scope of its argument to also include social issues.
The book, however, deals extensively with the explanation of how income inequality affects
individual health. Little attention is given to political and economic explanations on how
income inequality is generated in the first place. The volume ends with political solutions
that carefully avoid state interventions such as limiting the private sector’s role in the
production of goods and services (e.g., non-profit sector, employee-ownership schemes).
Although well-intentioned, these alternatives are insufficient to significantly reduce the
health inequalities generated by contemporary capitalism in wealthy countries, let alone
around the world.
