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May. 7th, 2009 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
changeofthemoonFinally reading for pleasure! Into chapter 4 of Richard Wilkinson's The Impact of Inequality: how to make sick societies healthy. It's a great book discussing the importance of psychosocial factors and income inequality on health outcomes. I really recommend it! Here's one passage I particularly liked so far:
The reason why having an older car, a smaller freezer, or a less smart phone is related to health is not because they have direct effects on health; it is because of the social stigma attached to lower material standards. Second-rate goods seem to tell people you are a second rate person. To believe otherwise is to fundamentally misunderstand the pain of relative poverty or low social status.
Spot on! The point is not absolute poverty, the point is relative poverty and how that fucks us up. He has great commentary on how the rise in mental disorders is correlated with economic growth and income inequality.
The reason why having an older car, a smaller freezer, or a less smart phone is related to health is not because they have direct effects on health; it is because of the social stigma attached to lower material standards. Second-rate goods seem to tell people you are a second rate person. To believe otherwise is to fundamentally misunderstand the pain of relative poverty or low social status.
Spot on! The point is not absolute poverty, the point is relative poverty and how that fucks us up. He has great commentary on how the rise in mental disorders is correlated with economic growth and income inequality.
