scispace - formally typeset
Open AccessBook

The spirit level : why greater equality makes societies stronger

TLDR
The strong version of Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett's argument in The Spirit Level implies that President Obama's fight to reform health care was pointless as discussed by the authors, and that extending the availability of health insurance cannot substantially improve Americans’ health.
Abstract
The strong version of Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett’s argument in The Spirit Level implies that President Obama’s fight to reform health care was pointless. Extending the availability of health insurance cannot substantially improve Americans’ health. Instead, the president would make us all happier, healthier, and longer-lived, their logic suggests, if he could get the richest, say, 5 percent of Americans to leave the country.

read more

Citations
More filters
Book ChapterDOI

The Multiple Directions of Social Progress: Ways Forward

TL;DR: In this article, the meaning of progress, its uneven nature, and obstacles to future progress are discussed, emphasizing the need for diverse strategies, open-minded experimentation, and scientific assessment.

Social Mobility in the EU

Eurofound
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine patterns of social mobility across all 28 Member States and provide new evidence on patterns of intergenerational social mobility, identifying key barriers to social mobility and reviews policies aimed at facilitating upward social mobility.
Journal ArticleDOI

Food without sun: price and life-saving potential

TL;DR: The price and life-saving potential of alternate foods during a catastrophe in line with global trade and information sharing is estimated, but factors such as migration, loans, aid or conflict are not taken into consideration.
Journal ArticleDOI

An intensifying and elite city

Niall Cunningham, +1 more
- 06 Mar 2017 - 
TL;DR: The authors contributed to the debate on London's social class structure at the start of the 21st century, focusing on the use of census metrics to argue the case for whether or not t...
References
More filters
Book

Happiness: Lessons from a New Science

TL;DR: In this new edition of his landmark book, Richard Layard shows that there is a paradox at the heart of our lives as discussed by the authors, which is not just anecdotally true, it is the story told by countless pieces of scientific research.
Journal ArticleDOI

Disease and Disadvantage in the United States and in England

TL;DR: The US population in late middle age is less healthy than the equivalent British population for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, lung disease, and cancer.
Posted Content

Cross-Country Determinants of Life Satisfaction: Exploring Different Determinants Across Groups in Society

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore a wide range of cross-country determinants of life satisfaction exploiting a database of 90,000 observations in 70 countries and show that only a small number of factors, such as openness, business climate, postcommunism, the number of chambers in parliament, Christian majority, and infant mortality robustly influence life satisfaction across countries.
Journal ArticleDOI

Social Trust and Fractionalization: A Possible Reinterpretation

TL;DR: In this paper, the importance of fractionalization for the creation of social trust is examined and the determinants of trust can be divided into two categories: those affecting individuals' trust radii and those affecting social polarization.
Journal ArticleDOI

Do Neoliberal Economic Policies Kill or Save Lives

TL;DR: The authors found that open international trade policies, low-inflation macroeconomic environments, and market-oriented property rights regimes promote human development across the world, even when controlling for countries' economic performance.