The Spirit Level

The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone is a 2009 book by British epidemiologists Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson. The Spirit Level has sold over 150,000 English copies and has been translated into 23 languages. This work is famous for sparking a discourse about the potential consequences of income inequality, with critics questioning the authors’ methods and conclusions, and supporters agreeing that inequality is the cause of numerous preventable social ills. To continue spreading their work’s message, Wilkinson and Pickett have established a non-profit called Equality Trust, which lobbies municipal and federal governments to foster equality through policy.

This guide refers to the Kindle edition of this work.

Summary

In the preface, the authors explain that in their work as epidemiologists, they have researched how and why people of different social tiers experience different health outcomes and lifespans. Their findings inspired them to investigate inequality and its consequences. In Chapter 1, the authors raise the possibility that people’s place in the social hierarchy of their society is a better predictor of their health and well-being than their average income, and they suggest that the scale of inequality between people is the best predictor of a country’s social and health issues.