From the Bookshelf of The Transition Movement…

Factors affected by a country’s level of financial equality

Levels of trust between people
Homicide
Violence
Imprisonment
Child welfare
Infant mortality
Drug and alcohol usage
Life expectancy
Mental illness
Obesity
Levels of education
Maths and literacy scores
Teenage births
Social mobility
Ecological footprint


The Trickle Down Effect

The more the richest people in society spend on conspicuous consumption the more ordinary people will be driven to spend in an effort to keep up.

“While inequality has been rising in the US and Britain, there has been a long term decline in savings and a rise in debt. In 1998 four times as many people filed for bankruptcy than did in the 1980s….. By 2002, unpaid credit card debt was $9,000 for the average card-holder….. The growth of inequality made it harder for people to maintain standards.

The increased pressure to consume led people to save less and borrow more, and this happened to such an extent that the growth of consumer demand became one of the main drivers of the long economic boom and financial speculation which ended in crisis (in 2008)….”


Working Hours

A study of OECD countries by Sam Bowles, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts shows that unequal countries have longer working hours. People in unequal countries do the equivalent of two or three months extra work a year.

Recycling waste is done better in societies with high equality

Japan and Sweden (best)
Germany and Switzerland
France
Italy
Australia
Portugal
USA and Spain
UK (worst)

Big bucks for the big guys in unequal countries

“In 2007 chief executives of 365 of the largest US companies received well over 500 times the average pay of their average employee, and these difference were getting bigger… Among the Fortune 500 companies the pay gap in 2007 was close to ten times as big as it was in 1980, when the long rise in income inequality was just beginning.”

Who owns what

The 5 richest people in the UK have more in money and assets than the bottom 20% of the population.
In America, the richest 20% of the population control 84% of the wealth.

Homicides are worse in unequal countries

”For murder rates to rise in particular places…people have to be made to feel more worthless. Then there are more fights, more brawls, more scuffles, more bottles and knives and more young men die”
Danny Dorling, health geographer.

There are higher levels of imprisonment in unequal countries

This is usually due to longer prison sentences, rather than higher levels of crime. In the UK in 1990 there were 46,000 people in prison, by 2007 that figure had almost doubled, and there were 80,000 in prison.

Laws which generate longer prison sentences:
Three-strikes laws
Minimum mandatory sentences
“Truth-in-sentencing” (i.e., no remission).

Longer prison sentencing can reach ludicrous extremes….in 2004 in California there were 360 people serving life sentences for shoplifting.

Several prisons in America have very harsh environments, and have been criticised by organisations like Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch. Prisons in places like Japan and the Netherlands are much more benevolent.

“You’d think countries with lower prison population per head of population would have higher rates of re-offending (i.e., they must only be imprisoning the worst criminals), but this is not the case. Instead there seems to be a higher rate of re-offending in more punitive systems e.g.

UK and USA –Re-offending rates of 60-65%
Sweden and Japan – Re-offending rates of 35-40%"


Social Mobility and equal opportunity

This is much better in countries that are equal. America and the UK again come bottom of pile when it comes equal opportunity.

“Americans, when you want to live the American dream, go to Denmark.”

Education

Countries near the top of the equality table spend the most money on public education, e.g., in Norway , almost all ( 97.8%) of its spending on school education is public expenditure. In contrast, in America, only 68.2% of the spending on school education is public expediture.

Index of Health and Social problems

These are much better in more equal countries.

Japan (Best)
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Finland
Belgium
The Netherlands
Switzerland
Spain
Canada
Germany
Italy
France
Austria
Ireland
New Zealand
Greece
UK
Portugal
USA. (Worst)

Why did the book concentrate on rich countries?

The authors couldn't find the data needed for poorer countries.

Factors affected by a country’s level of financial equality

Levels of trust between people
Homicide
Violence
Imprisonment
Child welfare
Infant mortality
Drug and alcohol usage
Life expectancy
Mental illness
Obesity
Levels of education
Maths and literacy scores
Teenage births
Social mobility
Ecological footprint


The Trickle Down Effect

The more the richest people in society spend on conspicuous consumption the more ordinary people will be driven to spend in an effort to keep up.

“While inequality has been rising in the US and Britain, there has been a long term decline in savings and a rise in debt. In 1998 four times as many people filed for bankruptcy than did in the 1980s….. By 2002, unpaid credit card debt was $9,000 for the average card-holder….. The growth of inequality made it harder for people to maintain standards.

The increased pressure to consume led people to save less and borrow more, and this happened to such an extent that the growth of consumer demand became one of the main drivers of the long economic boom and financial speculation which ended in crisis (in 2008)….”


Working Hours

A study of OECD countries by Sam Bowles, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts shows that unequal countries have longer working hours. People in unequal countries do the equivalent of two or three months extra work a year.

Recycling waste is done better in societies with high equality

Japan and Sweden (best)
Germany and Switzerland
France
Italy
Australia
Portugal
USA and Spain
UK (worst)

Big bucks for the big guys in unequal countries

“In 2007 chief executives of 365 of the largest US companies received well over 500 times the average pay of their average employee, and these difference were getting bigger… Among the Fortune 500 companies the pay gap in 2007 was close to ten times as big as it was in 1980, when the long rise in income inequality was just beginning.”

Who owns what

The 5 richest people in the UK have more in money and assets than the bottom 20% of the population.
In America, the richest 20% of the population control 84% of the wealth.

Homicides are worse in unequal countries

”For murder rates to rise in particular places…people have to be made to feel more worthless. Then there are more fights, more brawls, more scuffles, more bottles and knives and more young men die”
Danny Dorling, health geographer.

There are higher levels of imprisonment in unequal countries

This is usually due to longer prison sentences, rather than higher levels of crime. In the UK in 1990 there were 46,000 people in prison, by 2007 that figure had almost doubled, and there were 80,000 in prison.

Laws which generate longer prison sentences:
Three-strikes laws
Minimum mandatory sentences
“Truth-in-sentencing” (i.e., no remission).

Longer prison sentencing can reach ludicrous extremes….in 2004 in California there were 360 people serving life sentences for shoplifting.

Several prisons in America have very harsh environments, and have been criticised by organisations like Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch. Prisons in places like Japan and the Netherlands are much more benevolent.

“You’d think countries with lower prison population per head of population would have higher rates of re-offending (i.e., they must only be imprisoning the worst criminals), but this is not the case. Instead there seems to be a higher rate of re-offending in more punitive systems e.g.

UK and USA –Re-offending rates of 60-65%
Sweden and Japan – Re-offending rates of 35-40%"


Social Mobility and equal opportunity

This is much better in countries that are equal. America and the UK again come bottom of pile when it comes equal opportunity.

“Americans, when you want to live the American dream, go to Denmark.”

Education

Countries near the top of the equality table spend the most money on public education, e.g., in Norway , almost all ( 97.8%) of its spending on school education is public expenditure. In contrast, in America, only 68.2% of the spending on school education is public expediture.

Index of Health and Social problems

These are much better in more equal countries.

Japan (Best)
Sweden
Norway
Denmark
Finland
Belgium
The Netherlands
Switzerland
Spain
Canada
Germany
Italy
France
Austria
Ireland
New Zealand
Greece
UK
Portugal
USA. (Worst)

Why did the book concentrate on rich countries?

The authors couldn't find the data needed for poorer countries.
(hide spoiler)]