[IER] The Spirit Level: Presentation by Richard Wilkinson

[Carolyn Jones]

The Spirit Level

Why Equality is Better for Everyone

Thursday 9th June 2011 5.00pm - 7.00pm
UNISON Centre 130 Euston Road London NW1 2AY

 

 
 
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In 1990 Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett published a timely book called
The Spirit Level. The conclusion of the book, based on years of rigorous
research data, was that inequality is bad: it's bad for your health, bad for
the economy, bad for society and bad for the environment. 

 

Their groundbreaking book provides hard evidence to show:

 

.         How almost everything - including mental and physical health,
crime and drug use, educational performance, prison numbers, obesity,
teenage pregnancy and child well being - is affected not by how wealthy a
society is but how equal it is. 

.         That inequality in society leads to increases in debt and economic
instability. The financial crashes of 1929 and 2008 happened at the two
peaks of inequality, with about 1.5 trillion dollars a year being siphoned
from the bottom 90% of the US population to the top 10% in the run up to the
2008 crash. 

.         That the most important factors in narrowing inequality are trade
union membership and collective bargaining 

 

In 2010 The Spirit Level was re-printed with a new chapter rebutting the
criticisms made of the book by  right wing bodies such as The Tax Payers'
Alliance, The Democracy Institute and the Policy Exchange. In today's
economic climate, it is essential trade union members have the facts, the
graphs and the arguments available to show that cuts are not the answer.
Economic stability, social wellbeing and environmental survival depend on
equality...........and trade unions.

 

FREE but spaces limited. Entry restricted to those registered. Contact
Treena at  <mailto:office at ier.org.uk> office at ier.org.uk to reserve your
place


Carolyn Jones, Director, Institute of Employment Rights, 4th Floor, Jack
Jones House, 1 Islington, Liverpool L3 8EG. 0151 207 5265.

 

 

 



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