The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone

by Richard G. Wilkinson

lack of friends and low social status are among the most important sources of chronic stress affecting the health of populations in rich countries today.

Now that we have much more knowledge of hunting and gathering societies it is clear that our ancestors did not live in a state of continuous conflict.

{{citation needed}}

systems of material or economic relations are systems of social relations.

More equal societies are more innovative.

This chart seemed especially weak. “Patents filed” as a measure of innovation? There are so many other factors at play here.

The strength of the evidence that a more equal society is a better society has a key role to play in changing public opinion.

true, but quite a hard sentence to parse!

that requires a society which knows where it wants to go.

The task is now to develop a politics based on a recognition of the kind of society we need to create and committed to making use of the institutional and technological opportunities to realize it.

There are a few references like this to “a society which knows where it wants to go”. Unfortunately, inasmuch as the society I live in has a direction, it's not this one…