Egalitarismul, remediu universal

Richard Wilkinson si Kate Pickett sunt doi experti in materie de sanatate publica si de influente sociale care determina nivelul de sanatate si functionare normala si echilibrata a societatii (epidemiologie sociala). In lucrarea lor „The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better” aparuta la inceputul anului 2009, cei doi autori prezinta nenumarate dovezi coform carora cu cat societatile sunt mai egalitariste, cu atat ele sunt mai ferite de fenomene precum criminalitate, analfabetism, mortalitate ridicata.
O trecere in revista a datelor din carte se gaseste in articolul lor „ The problems of relative deprivation: why some societies do better than others”, aparut in Social Science and Medicine, 2007, 65(9):1965-78. Citez de acolo:

„Using income inequality as an indicator and determinant of the scale of socioeconomic stratification in a society, we show that many problems associated with relative deprivation are more prevalent in more unequal societies. We summarise previously published evidence suggesting that this may be true of morbidity and mortality, obesity, teenage birth rates, mental illness, homicide, low trust, low social capital, hostility, and racism. To these we add new analyses which suggest that this is also true of poor educational performance among school children, the proportion of the population imprisoned, drug overdose mortality and low social mobility.
That ill health and a wide range of other social problems associated with social status within societies are also more common in more unequal societies, may imply that income inequality is central to the creation of the apparently deep-seated social problems associated with poverty, relative deprivation or low social status. We suggest that the degree of material inequality in a society may not only be central to the social forces involved in national patterns of social stratification, but also that many of the problems related to low social status may be amenable to changes in income distribution.”

Asadar, inegalitatile socio-economice inseamna o crestere a mortalitatii, bolilor mentale, obezitatii, analfabetismului, consumului de stupefiante, a infractionalitatii.

Inegalitatile si cresterea mortalitatii
„In a recent review of 168 analyses of the relationship between income inequality and population health we found that a large majority of studies reported that more egalitarian societies tend to be healthier (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2006). Studies of small areas – such as parishes and census tracts – were the only major exceptions to this pattern. We found 104 studies of health in which income inequality was measured across whole nations, states, regions or cities – areas large enough for income inequality to be indicative of the overall scale of social differentiation and social hierarchy in those societies (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2006).
After adjustment for various control variables (including ones which could be either mediating or confounding variables), 81 of the 104 studies (78%) found all or some of the health variables they measured were significantly related to inequality. Before adjustment the proportion supporting this relationship was higher still. As well as a large number of international comparisons of developed and developing countries, evidence confirming this pattern also came from studies of regions, states, and cities in a number of different countries including Canada, Chile, China, Ecuador, Italy, Russia, Taiwan, UK, and USA. In contrast, studies which measured inequality and health in smaller areas (counties, tracts and parishes) produced more equivocal results.”

Inegalitatile si raspandirea obezitatii
„In a study of obesity rates (BMI >30) in 21 of the richest countries we reported that rates were higher in more unequal societies (Pickett, Kelly, Brunner, Lobstein, & Wilkinson, 2005). These relationships were statistically significant for obesity among both men and women, but noticeably stronger among women. The same study also showed that greater inequality was associated with higher total calorie intake. The relation between obesity and inequality was attenuated, but remained significant, even after adjusting for calorie consumption.”

Inegalitatile si raspandirea bolilor mentale
„Using surveys of random samples of the population, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently produced comparable estimates of the prevalence of mental illness for eight developed countries – six in Western Europe plus Japan and the USA (Demyttenaere, Bruffaerts, Posada-Villa, Gasquet, Kovess, Lepine et al., 2004). We found statistically significant correlations between income inequality and the prevalence of both serious and any mental illness (Pickett, James, & Wilkinson, 2006).
We have since confirmed this correlation (r=0.79, p=0.002) in an expanded dataset, including data from a further WHO survey for New Zealand, and non-WHO population based prevalence estimates for Australia, Canada and the UK (Figure 1). However, we found no evidence of such a relation among the 50 states of the USA.”

Inegalitatile si distrugerea relatiilor sociale
„Many people have intuited that inequality is socially divisive and corrosive of human relations. Writing of the United States in the first half of the 19th Century, de Tocqueville emphasised his belief that the strength of the associational and civic life to which he drew attention was based (with the crucial exception of slavery) on what he called the “equality of conditions” (de Tocqueville, 2000). Numerous analyses including homicide, trust, social capital, hostility and racism, suggest that the quality of social relations in a society is poorer where there is more inequality (Wilkinson, 2005).”

Inegalitatile si cresterea ratei de omucideri
„A large body of evidence suggests that there is a robust relationship between greater inequality and higher homicide rates. All 24 studies of inequality and homicide rates in large areas (whole countries, regions, states or cities) reported significant relationships (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2006). An earlier review also reported a robust relationship which, like health, was stronger when the areas measured were larger rather than smaller (Hsieh & Pugh, 1993).”

Inegalitatile erodeaza increderea intre oameni
„There have been a number of analyses of the relation between inequality and various measures of the quality of social relations, including trust and social capital. As summarised elsewhere (Wilkinson, 2005), these results are consistent with the findings on violence, and suggest that the quality of social relations is poorer in more unequal societies. An international analysis of data from 38 countries (Uslaner, 2002) as well as an analysis among the 50 states of the USA (Kawachi, Kennedy, Lochner, & Prothrow-Stith, 1997) have shown substantially lower levels of trust where income differences are bigger. In the less unequal states only 10 or 15 percent felt they could not trust others; this rose to 35 or 40 percent in the more unequal states. The differences related to inequality internationally were just as large.”

Inegalitatile socio-economice inseamna cresterea agresivitatii si rasismului
„The last indicators that greater inequality is accompanied by less good social relations come from US data on hostility scores and racism. Williams measured hostility scores in random samples of the population in 10 US cities (Williams, Feaganes, & Barefoot, 1995). The average score for each city was significantly related to its income inequality (Wilkinson, 2005). In a separate study, Kennedy et al found that people held more racist attitudes and beliefs in US states where income differences were large (Kennedy, Kawachi, Lochner, Jones, & Prothrow-Stith, 1997).”

Concluzie generala:
„It is often assumed that the desire to raise national standards of performance in fields such as education and health is a quite separate problem from the desire to reduce health and educational inequalities within a society. However, perhaps the most important implication of the relationships with inequality shown here is that the achievement of higher national standards of performance may be substantially dependent on reducing inequalities in each country. As well as improving health, reducing inequality may also raise the educational performance of school children, increase trust, while decreasing violence and teenage births.
The associations we have seen between income inequality and a range of health and social problems are far from trivial.
Even ignoring extreme examples, there are ten-fold differences in homicide rates between more and less equal countries and US states, sixfold differences in teenage birth rates, six-fold differences in the prevalence of obesity, four-fold differences in how much people feel they can trust each other, five- or tenfold differences in imprisonment rates and, mainly as a result of deaths at younger ages, three years difference in the average length of life.”

Intelegem deci ca la radacina unui numar imens de rele sociale se afla inagalitatile de venit. Nu e intamplator ca, asa dupa cum subliniaza cei doi autori, statele inegale din SUA au de 10 ori mai multe omucideri, de 6 ori mai multe cazuri de obezitate, de 4 ori mai putina incredere inter-personala, de 10 ori mai multi oameni in inchisoare decat statele mai egalitare din SUA.

Dupa cum pertinent scrie si Philip Birch, editorul lucrarii amintite la inceput,
„Inequality is the root cause of all societies’ ills. It doesn’t matter if the average level of income is very low or very high, it is the gap between rich and poor that is important. It is why, when polled, more Indonesians, Vietnamese, Finnish and Japanese will claim to be more happy than Brits and Americans. And it isn’t just the poorest in the most unequal societies that suffer but the richest too. In London on the one hand we hear regularly about teenagers from poorer communities stabbing each other, but on the other more and more apparently successful, university educated, richer young people suffer from anxiety, depression and are open to casual drug use than ever before. Violence, crime, low educational achievement, poor health; and status anxiety and the misery of having too much money and too much choice go hand in hand, because of inequality.”

Un editorial aparut in Times la 8 martie 2009 ofera o noua viziune de ansamblu asupra inegalitatilor socio-economice, pe baza lucrarii Wilkinson&Pickett.
„It might be said that The Spirit Level merely formulates what everyone has always felt. Western European utopias have almost all been egalitarian. Polls in Britain over the past 20 years show that the proportion of the population who think income differences too big is on average 80%. But what is new about their book, the authors insist, is that it turns personal intuitions into publicly demonstrable facts. With the evidence they have supplied, politicians now have a chance to “do genuine good”. By reducing income inequality, they can improve the health and wellbeing of the whole population. How this should be effected, Wilkinson and Pickett do not think it is their job to say, but increasing top tax rates or legislating to limit maximum pay are possibilities they suggest. They warn, though, that short-term remedies like this could be reversed by a change of government, and that we need to find ways of rooting greater equality more deeply in our society. This is their book’s mission, and they have set up a not-for-profit trust (equalitytrust.org) to make the evidence they set out better known. One illusion that, cheeringly, they hope to dispel is that the super-rich are some kind of asset we should all cherish, rather than, from the viewpoint of social health, the equivalent of the seven plagues of Egypt.”

Egalizarea veniturilor in societate apare tot mai clar ca fiind un adevarat panaceu, capabil sa minimizeze influenta negativa a unei intregi pleiade de probleme sociale. Capitalismul trebuie combatut nu doar din cauza consumerismului pe care il naste, dar si din cauza libertatii pe care o ofera unora de a se imbogatii peste orice limita. Socialismul, prin moderatia materiala, echitatea si egalitatea sociala, mentalitatea colectiva pe care le aduce, este capabil sa ocoleasca aceste dificultati.