Health and other inequalities - why should they matter to you?

Danny Dorling

Sheffield University

18/3/2013

Discover and

Understand

Lecture series,

Monday morning.

Here is one way of presenting the top 25 countries’

Rich World Inequality League

Ratio of the income of the best-off tenth to worse of tenth of households

17.7 Singapore 15.9 US 15.0 Portugal 13.8 UK

13.4 Israel 12.5 Australia 12.5 New Zealand 11.6 Italy10.3 Spain 10.2 Greece 9.4 Canada 9.4 Ireland 9.2 Netherlands 9.1 France 9.0 Switzerland 8.2 Belgium8.1 Denmark 7.8 S. Korea 7.3 Slovenia 6.9 Austria6.9 Germany 6.2 Sweden 6.1 Norway 5.6 Finland4.5 Japan (countries in black are in Europe, 18 of the richest 25)

The 25 richest countries in the world with a population of 1 million+Source, UNDP world development report 2009, not updated since then.

This is the most reliable league table I can find on that shows just how very different some affluent countries are from others.

The Netherlands is the country of average inequality by this measure (or was). It is unusual in that is richest 1% receive less than in similar countries.

In general the more equitable a country the more that people are concerned about inequality and suggest that child poverty is too high in their country.

It may be more widespread lack of concern that allows inequalities to grow (Norway exemplifies concern, USA is the opposite).

Inequalities are everywhere – take within London

Social visualization is partly viewing the invisible social landscape, all kinds of things matter, the next slide concerns how much we use cars as an example and the effects that can have on our health…

In the 1970s different choices

were made in each

country of the rich world –

some chose inequality(Graphs from the No-

nonsense guide to equality, NI: 2012)

GDP, inequality, voting, health: THE UK

(Graphs from: Injustice: why social inequality persists, 2011).

GDP (10 year) The 1% (+ after tax)

One measure of health inequalitiesOne measure of voting inequalities

Some countries are

more equitable because

equality was forced upon

them

(Graphs from the No-nonsense guide to equality,

NI: 2012)

Some countries still havean aristocracy (old and new)

And some, not too far away, and not too

Scandinavian (or East Asian)

are very different to the Portugal & UK(Graphs from the No-nonsense

guide to equality, NI: 2012)

People behave differently in regimes of differing inequality

“In the UK, a parallel but more isolated push is evident in the coalition’s decision to use government debt problems as the thinnest of veils for raising university fees to the highest levels in the western world, removing direct state subsidies from most university teaching. Deliberately picking a ‘strategic’ fight with the weakest of the state-dependent ‘vested interests’ (in this case young people) is a classic ‘shock doctrine’ tactic. And Cameron, Clegg and Cable clearly appreciate that privatising university finances will have long-run implications. If the changeover sticks, it will inevitably create a future electorate in England where the same high personal debt burdens as in the US sustain a public opinion believing in ‘self-reliance’ and calling for the state’s share of GDP to be pushed down” Patrick Dunleavey page 6 of Political Insight Dunleavy, P. (2011). "The backlash against the State." Political Insight 2(1): 4-9.

Portugal looks good on this measure

Nowatzki, N. R. (2012) Wealth Inequality and Health: A Political Economy Perspective, International Journal of Health Services, 42, 3, 403–424, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22993961

 The Broad Street Pump, Safe & Sound, Penguin, 1971

Inequality and health is most studied

Take a step back:

The period 1851-1971

was when the population explosion,

which began earlier in Europe,

globalised.

For 40 years we have had deceleration.

There are temporary

blips in long term

patterns, such as in the UK and Russia right

now as inequality

and fertility rises.

suggestions – what’s so good about greater equality; 1: religion

• Religions are very often tales of good triumphing over evil in times of great inequality. You probably know all of these tales, one of the oldest recorded is Zoroaster’s triumph over, amongst much else, obstacles imposed by the ruling class*. Many world religions began in times and places of greater inequality, always advocating more equality in one way or another (NNGE pages 88-92).

* For a map of Zoroastrians see: http://www.worldmapper.org/display_religion.php?selected=579

2: creativity, patents, papers

• There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that creativity is enhanced under conditions of greater equality. This ranges from work finding a strong correlation between high cultural activity in those European countries with higher equality to reports that Leonardo da Vinci’s artistry was encouraged by his working in an atmosphere of higher than usual equality fostered by his sponsors (NNGE pages 94-95).

3. Scientists and footballers work and play- better and harder

• Scientists today are at their most productive, publishing most academic papers, when they work in more equal countries such as in Sweden and Finland (NNGE page 124). Precisely why they are more creative is hard to judge, but it may well be linked to the same factors involved in recent suggestions that top football players are more successful in clubs that pay players more equally (Bucciol and Piovesan 2012), see http://t.co/dphrqwNq

4: The Structure of Society is stable under greater equality

• Recently, in the USA, the average black family saw their assets fall in value to have recourse to as little as 19 times less wealth than the average white family. This is possibly the highest monetary inequality recorded in the United States at any time since slavery (NNGE page 111). There is evidence that the growth of housing bubble in the states was partly fuelled by rising inequality there. Poorer people tried harder to move nearer richer people (see Robert Frank’s work on “How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class”)

5: The most fundamental aspects of our lives improve faster

Greater equality is not just possible. For many people in many parts of the world, rich and poor, it is a reality.

Infant mortality falls fasters in times and places of greatest equality (from 42 to 40 per 1000 in the last year, possibly the fastest drop ever).

Population growth slows most quickly when equality rises and consumption is lower per person (especially of food in rich countries).

6: Greater equality is essential for non-coerced full employment

• In unions like the UK or USA, where incomes are now so incredibly unevenly distributed, there is enough money to employ every young person, full-time, who is out of work under the age of 25 on living wages at least ten times over! The money is to be found in the extra incomes that the very richest 10% of the populations (in unions like these) have secured for themselves over the course of the last four decades. It is not that we don’t have enough money spent in the pay bill to employ everyone anymore – we just spend it badly.

7: In countries of Greater equality you can walk to school

• When inequalities are less the differences between groups living in different areas are less. Parents have less fear of the local schools. More children can go to their nearest school. More are friends with those who live near them. Less cars are driven (including to schools). There is better motherhood, fatherhood and more apple pie can be shared by all. These are all statements of principals and values few disagree with.

But some people still argue: pavements=socialism!

Conclusions and more ideas• We need to better control a psychotic minority. We

need new collective mechanisms of defence. We’ve reinvented these for centuries.

• We need to recognise that most people can become less violent but still violence increases overall due to the (ideologically encouraged) actions of a few.

• Our world is changing very quickly 1492, 1544, 1607, … , 1755, 1789, 1848, 1917, 1968… today

It takes only 16 generations before my generation (generation ‘X’), to get back to when a new world was discovered and everything changed – don’t despair at our slow adaptation to rapidly changing circumstance.

The wealth of the 11 million richest people on earth fell, not just in

2008, but also in 2011.

In the UK it fell from 1912 all the way through to

1978. In 1912 no one recognised ‘peak wealth’.

The wider effects of the effects...of inequality (to end with)

We are going to look atWe are going to look at

Meat consumptionMeat consumption

Water consumptionWater consumption

Waste productionWaste production

Number of FlightsNumber of Flights

Ecological impactEcological impact

in each of the most affluent countries.in each of the most affluent countries.

You might think: "Surely, if a few people hold most of the wealth we all consume less?"

Inequality and meatM

eat c

ons

umpt

ion

in k

g p

er

year

per

pe

rso

n

Inequality

Not if you are concerned about how much meat we farm and consume

Japan

Germany

France

Spain

UK

USA

Portugal

Inequality and waterw

ater

in m

3 p

er y

ear

per

per

son

Inequality

Not if you are concerned about how much water we use (apart from the UK!)

Japan

Germany

France

Spain

UK

USA

Portugal

Inequality and waste

Not if you are concerned about how much waste we each produce

Japan

Germany FranceSpain

UK

USA

Inequality

Singapore1100

Munic

ipal w

ast

e c

olle

cted (

kg p

er

capit

a

per

year)

Portugal

Inequality and flights60 Norway

Ireland

New Zealand

annu

al a

ircra

ft d

epar

ture

s pe

r th

ousa

nd p

eopl

e

Inequality

Not if you are concerned about how many flights we each take (on average)

Japan

GermanyFrance

Spain

UK

USA

Italy

Canada

Portugal

Inequality and ecology

Inequality

Eco

logi

cal f

ootp

rint

in g

loba

l hec

tare

s pe

r ca

pita

Japan

Germany

France

SpainUK

USA

Singapore

Not if you are concerned about how many planets we might need to exist:An Ecological Footprint of 2.1 global hectares per capita equals one-planet living

Portugal

Data sources

UNDP/FAO UNDP/FAO http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=126http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=126

UNDP/LPR UNDP/LPR http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=104http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=104

UNSD UNSD http://unstats.un.org/unsd/ENVIRONMENT/qindicators.htmhttp://unstats.un.org/unsd/ENVIRONMENT/qindicators.htm

World Bank World Bank World Development Indicators 2005 (IS.AIR.DPRT)World Development Indicators 2005 (IS.AIR.DPRT)

WWF WWF Living Planet Index 2008Living Planet Index 2008

More and more geographical data is becoming available, often for the first time.

Ecological Footprint

The map shows the ecological footprint (EF), a measure of the resources used per head in each country. A EF of 2.1 global hectares per capita equals one-planet living on the basis that everyone is entitled to the same amount of the planet’s natural resources. -

Source: New Economics Foundation, Happy Planet Index

Ecological Footprint

When we draw the same map upon the world population cartogram it may not initially appear to be so bad. The countries that consume too much contain fewer people, so

not such a problem?However...This map is misleading – we need to reproject the basemap again for a fair

picture

Ecological Footprint

If we reproject the globe again so that the area of each grid cell is drawn in proportion to the ecological impact of the people who live in that area, then we see that most of

the damage is being caused by the rich world and more of that (per capita) by the most unequal countries of the rich world (which China services).

Japan

Germany

France

Spain

UK

USA

Thank you ---------------- www.shef.ac.uk/sasi