Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism

INEQUALITY IS THE CAUSE OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL PROBLEMSFigure 15 Inequality and self-reported trust80Norway‘Most people can be trusted’ (%)604020SwedenDenmarkFinlandSwitzerlandNZNetherlandsCanadaAustraliaJapanKoreaBelgiumGermany IrelandCzech Rep.Italy UKAustria SpainGreece IsraelSloveniaFranceHong KongUSASingaporePortugal03 4 5 6 7 8 9 10InequalityR 2 = 0.1129driven by income inequality. There is no pattern amongthem whatsoever.Statements such as ‘America has a high murder rate’ or‘Scandinavians are more trusting’ are not as interesting asthe claim that inequality erodes trust and causes peopleto murder one another. Nevertheless, such unsensationalobservations are all that can be reasonably derived fromthe data.Dismissal of economic growth as a factorWilkinson and Pickett begin The Spirit Level by dismissingthe importance of economic growth in wealthy societies onthe basis that life expectancy does not correlate with GDPin the very richest countries. They are right about that, but145