Why We are a Sick Nation

I don't mean mentally ill, I mean generally unhealthy.

A study has been done, and it shows that countries with more equitable wealth distribution are healthier, even amongst the wealthiest in society:

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Links between bodily and economic well-being are far from straightforward. In the related area of socioeconomic inequality we’ve already become aware of unexpected influences through the work of Professor Richard Wilkinson of the University of Nottingham.

In his 2009 book The Spirit Level, co-authored with Kate Pickett, he summarised a raft of research all pointing in more or less the same direction. In countries where there is a big earnings gap between rich and poor, life expectancy is lower while mental illness, obesity and drug and alcohol abuse are all more common.

The real surprise is that it’s not only the poor who suffer. The population as a whole do less well if the gap is wider. The nations with the smallest wealth gap and the lowest incidence of health and social problems are the Japanese and the Scandinavians. The countries with, respectively, the greatest and highest are America, Portugal and Britain. The biological explanation for this is uncertain, but possibly mediated by the hormonal effects of perpetual anxiety about status and position, or loss of them. Economics affects health but not always as you might expect.

In our accommodating the insatiable desire of the people at the top for, "Another yacht to water ski behind," we are shortening, and worsening, the lives of everyone in our society, both among the haves and have nots.

The economists or social scientists might have a more complex explanation for this phenomenon, but as for me, I will keep the lesson simple, "Evil is bad for you."