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by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett
According to Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (2009), almost all the problems we associate with life in modem developed societies can be traced to one common cause. This is a big idea, one that should radically change the way we think about politics, economics, fairness and social justice. The common factor they have identified has the power to help forge a society that is healthier, where people trust each other more, where children have higher literacy, where there is less stress, less violence, less drug dependence and less mental illness. While we are spending millions to tackle each of these problems individually, often with questionable results, there is one solution that could tackle them all at the same time. This shared answer is not, as many of our politicians would have it, to speed up and strengthen economic growth, forging policy in the fearful shadow of the markets' reaction as if they were some kind of capricious deity. Instead, it is greater income equality: if we want to do better we need to become more equal.
'A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members' (Mahatma Ghandi). Among developed nations, there is a general consensus that one of the functions of the state is to at the very least provide a 'safety net' that protects the poorest in society from the worst effects of poverty, while also taking steps to ensure that people have the opportunities - largely through education and entrepreneurship - to move out of poverty.
This focus on safety nets and social mobility has traditionally had little to say about the role of the rich. Indeed, both left and right have seen the growth of higher income groups as a way of alleviating poverty, which is based on the idea that wealth would 'trickle down' from the richest to the poorest through job and business creation, or through higher tax revenues that can be spent on public goods and redistributive measures. In 1998, Peter Mandelson famously said that Labour was: 'intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich - as long as they pay their taxes'. Economic growth at a national level was seen as benefiting rich and poor alike, as 'a rising...