Nicholas Kristof opined yesterday in the New York Times on all the nasty effects that inequality of wealth has on Americans. You see, because America is a system where there are haves and have-nots, this results in all kinds of nasty side-effects, and – it makes people sad.
There’s growing evidence that the toll of our stunning inequality is not just economic but also is a melancholy of the soul. The upshot appears to be high rates of violent crime, high narcotics use, high teenage birthrates and even high rates of heart disease.
That’s the argument of an important book by two distinguished British epidemiologists, Richard Wilkinsonand Kate Pickett. They argue that gross inequality tears at the human psyche, creating anxiety, distrust and an array of mental and physical ailments — and they cite mountains of data to support their argument.
“If you fail to avoid high inequality, you will need more prisons and more police,” they assert. “You will have to deal with higher rates of mental illness, drug abuse and every other kind of problem.” They explore these issues in their book, “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.”
The heart of their argument is that humans are social animals and that in highly unequal societies those at the bottom suffer from a range of pathologies. For example, a long-term study of British civil servants found that messengers, doormen and others with low status were much more likely to die of heart disease, suicide and some cancers and had substantially worse overall health.
Yes, because we have inequality of wealth, people join gangs, die early, commit crimes, and suffer a host of other maladies. Kristof also cites some studies on monkeys that take cocaine or something, and how this proves that inequality is a bad thing. In the end, we see his analysis leads to the same destination as other mindless liberal arguments:
So as we debate national policy in 2011 — from the estate tax to unemployment insurance to early childhood education — let’s push to reduce the stunning levels of inequality in America today. These inequities seem profoundly unhealthy, for us and for our nation’s soul.
Translation: We need to pass laws that impose even higher (job-killing) rates of taxation on those that produce, so we can give it to those that can’t or won’t. We need to confiscate half (or more if they had their way) of everything a man saves in his life (and was previously taxed on, sometimes double), so we can dump more cash into a feckless educational system, inducting kids into it at an even earlier age, and inculcating into as many of them as possible the value set that says the nanny state will provide you with your every need as you go through life. Let’s punish the working, and extend unemployment benefits even longer. Hell, why don’t we just create a perpetual unemployment benefit? Instead of having to fool with the inconvenience of working to earn a living, if you’ll just accept a slightly lower standard of living, you can just stay on the dole until you retire (and then, presumably, collect retirement benefits provided by the government, too).
Instead of viewing income inequality as some kind of curse on the soul of America, why not view it like this: in America, you have the opportunity, if you will summon the gumption to take it, to become immensely, fabulously wealthy? I’m not even close to being wealthy, but I enjoy things in life commensurate with the effort I’ve put into it. I don’t ask anybody to give me more, and I don’t begrudge those that have done better anything they have. The more we listen to people like Kristof, the more we chip away at the American dream.
Here’s the link to his article, if you care to read it.
