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dansumption's review against another edition
4.0
Classic economic theory assumes some inequality is required in order to stimulate competition and economic growth. This book sets out to challenge that assumption, and gives numerous compelling examples of the ways that inequality harms society.
One of the most memorable images in the book is a graph showing inequality levels in the UK, USA and Netherlands from the 18th Century to the present day. In the UK and USA, for most of the 20th century society became much more equal (in the UK in the 1970s, inequality was the second lowest in Europe), but then from the late 70s onwards inequality grew rapidly until in recent years it has become worse than at any time in recorded history. The UK is now the most unequal country in Europe, while the Netherlands has continued to progress towards greater equality.
The costs of this inequality are many, and are compelling. Contrary to capitalist theory, more unequal countries are less competitive and less innovative. Greater proportions of their national income are spent on activities which create little or no value, such as legal and accounting fees. Health, particularly mental health, suffers: in the USA, life expectancy has already begun falling, and in the UK it has levelled out. The poorest have life expectancies on a par with countries like the the Sudan or Pakistan, while even the very richest live scarcely any longer than the average in more equitable countries such as Norway or Denmark. And massive inequality damages even the super-rich, creating "no-go" areas for them, and requiring from them an ongoing and costly effort to maintain their status and that of their children.
The book offers some hope for the future. Despite the apparently unstoppable rise of inequality, things do not have to remain this way. As faith in democracy breaks down more rapidly in more unequal countries, political and business leaders have cautiously begun looking for answers to this, popular leaders such as Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders attract mass support, and some of the super-rich have even begun to lobby for increased taxes on their wealth, and political . It's not certain that any resulting action will be rapid or significant enough to address our current problems, but Dorling is right: the current state of affaird cannot go on indefinitely.
There are some problems with the book. It contains some rather fanciful assumptions, and ultimately it does not address the question of the title: its arguments are really against today's extreme inequality, not inequality per so. Worst of all, it launches with a hodge-podge of statistics, disjointed statements, confusing graphs, and vague language, which nearly had me abandoning it after the first chapter, but I'm glad I stuck with it.
One of the most memorable images in the book is a graph showing inequality levels in the UK, USA and Netherlands from the 18th Century to the present day. In the UK and USA, for most of the 20th century society became much more equal (in the UK in the 1970s, inequality was the second lowest in Europe), but then from the late 70s onwards inequality grew rapidly until in recent years it has become worse than at any time in recorded history. The UK is now the most unequal country in Europe, while the Netherlands has continued to progress towards greater equality.
The costs of this inequality are many, and are compelling. Contrary to capitalist theory, more unequal countries are less competitive and less innovative. Greater proportions of their national income are spent on activities which create little or no value, such as legal and accounting fees. Health, particularly mental health, suffers: in the USA, life expectancy has already begun falling, and in the UK it has levelled out. The poorest have life expectancies on a par with countries like the the Sudan or Pakistan, while even the very richest live scarcely any longer than the average in more equitable countries such as Norway or Denmark. And massive inequality damages even the super-rich, creating "no-go" areas for them, and requiring from them an ongoing and costly effort to maintain their status and that of their children.
The book offers some hope for the future. Despite the apparently unstoppable rise of inequality, things do not have to remain this way. As faith in democracy breaks down more rapidly in more unequal countries, political and business leaders have cautiously begun looking for answers to this, popular leaders such as Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders attract mass support, and some of the super-rich have even begun to lobby for increased taxes on their wealth, and political . It's not certain that any resulting action will be rapid or significant enough to address our current problems, but Dorling is right: the current state of affaird cannot go on indefinitely.
There are some problems with the book. It contains some rather fanciful assumptions, and ultimately it does not address the question of the title: its arguments are really against today's extreme inequality, not inequality per so. Worst of all, it launches with a hodge-podge of statistics, disjointed statements, confusing graphs, and vague language, which nearly had me abandoning it after the first chapter, but I'm glad I stuck with it.
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