The Spirit Level Documentary Trailer

"Dear Friends, Many of you will remember the extraordinary crowd funding campaign run last year for The Spirit Level documentary. Thanks to your generous support, the filmmakers have now been able to begin this ambitious project - but there is more work to be done.

This Spirit Level film is an official documentary based on Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett's seminal book. It shows how the rising gap between rich and poor has impacted on our societies, and aims to engage people on the issue of inequality, helping them to discover how it affects them and what can be done to reduce it.

We want a film that is talked and written about, that gets into cinemas and televisions, and that reaches millions. More importantly, we want a film that can help us achieve real, tangible change in policies and attitudes that help reduce inequality. The film is being funded by thousands of small donations, and has so far raised a staggering £45,000. This has enabled filmmakers to capture interviews with some of the world’s leading thinkers from the US, UK and Europe.

They've also gathered stories from the frontline of inequality all over the world, but these too need to be filmed. The Spirit Level's filmmakers are aiming to raise a further £30,000 to start this filming; with your help they can get there. If you're able and would like to donate to this project, please visit the film's website. Alternatively, please consider sharing the documentary's trailer with friends, colleagues and online networks.

For more information on the project's progress, and to hear from Katharine Round, Director of The Spirit Level, on the story so far, please visit: http://thespiritleveldocumentary.com/blogW.

"The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone" UNISON, IER & The Equality Trust

 Last Thursday evening I went to a talk by Richard Wilkinson, one of the authors of "The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone" in the new UNISON HQ in Euston. It was co-sponsored by The Institute of Employment Rights (IER), UNISON and the Equality Trust.

The meeting was Chaired by John Hendy QC (below 2nd left). UNISON Assistant General Secretary, Bronwyn McKenna (3rd left) welcomed everyone and spoke about the grim environment that Unions face. "We are being attacked by the Government, employers and the Courts. The information in The Spirit Level could be one of our ways to stop being defensive and go on the attack. It is clear that the health and well being of a country is also linked positively to levels of trade union density. Since countries where trade unions are strong tend to be more equal and successful societies". I love her quote from the Supreme Court

“The right to bargain collectively with an employer enhances the human dignity, liberty and autonomy of workers by giving them the opportunity to influence the establishment of workplace rules and thereby gain some control over a major aspect of their lives, namely their work.” Unfortunately of course this was not the British Supreme Court - but the Canadian.

UNISON Head of Health, Karen Jennings (4th left) was the next speaker and she told us that she believes this book is as important as the research carried out in the 18th and 19th century into poverty which proved that those who lived in filth and overcrowding died the earliest. 

Professor Richard Wilkinson (left) and Kate Pickett (absent) wrote the "The Spirit Level”. I’ve read the book and seen him speak at least twice now. He keeps trying to say he is a boring speaker and you should not want to see him at all if you have read the book. However, each time I have heard him he has been entertaining and informative. 

Some key stuff (to me anyway):  Richard enjoys countering the arguments of the right who attack his book and who appear to believe that grinding poverty is actually good for you! Yep.

He believes that “the left” lost its way when Marxism was discredited by the loss of freedoms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.  We should be confident of a better future, but this must be based on empirical research. It’s not good enough just to say we want an alternative without doing the maths. He thinks that his book is a small contribution to change.

I only really understood that night that it is not only the right who will have “a problem” with the “The Spirit Level”. While the United States is the most unequal country with the corresponding worse health and social failings. The 2nd greatest advanced capitalist society, Japan, is the most equal and has by far the best health and social outcomes. Both societies are very different with regard to individualism and paternalism but their actual economic systems are pretty similar.

Richard thinks it is bizarre that we have such a wealthy material society for so many but still have so many social failings. We are richer than ever but look at levels of self harm at schools, drug abuse, violence and levels of mental health. When you map economic growth in rich countries there is a diminishing returns curve. There is no significant difference in life expectancy amongst the very rich countries but there is when related to income.

The Spirit Level is not a theory of everything but a theory of a problem that tends to be common.  

How can you explain why 23% of the UK have mental health problems but only 8% of Germans? Why have some countries 300% increases in mental health when compared to others?

Why does Canada and the USA have such different homicide rates from the use of firearms - yet similar levels of Gun ownership?  

How can the prison population of countries be predicted so accurately by the degree of income inequality in that country?

Why do harsher prison sentences and use of the death penalty tend to be found in more unequal societies?

Why is social mobility (the Cameron “Big Society” wanted outcome) higher in more equal societies? Why is Richard able to tease audiences across the pond by saying that if they want to live the American dream then statistically they should move to Denmark?

Why is infant mortality in Sweden when compared to England and Wales better in all social classes including the rich?

Why is income inequality so damaging to health and well being?  This question is I think a problem that has not yet been properly explained.  On the one hand it may seem like the "bleeding obvious". But where is the empirical proof? Richard thinks it is down to Psychosocial risk factors such as
"Feeling of inferiority"..."low social status"... weak social affiliations" and maybe the sheer stress of being poor and downtrodden.   This makes sense but not entirely convincing in the absence of the statistical proof that makes the rest of the book so compelling.  Still, this proves that it is not the theory of everything and does not distract from the overwhelming power of the main argument which is backed by tons of research.

In the Q&A I mentioned that we are trying in our sector (the “not for profit” and voluntary sector) to introduce the principles of “The Spirit Level”. Since surely if it is bad for society to be unequal then it is as corrosive and damaging for such inequality to take place in the workplace? I asked if there was a trade union guide to becoming a “Spirit Level Negotiator”. Richard replied that apparently the Swedish Trade unions have published a cartoon guide and others have done some work on this. One member of the panel said "you only have to ask".  I will.

So there you have it. If you work for any organisation where the income gap between the top and the bottom is too high - then you work for a bad, bad company. 

UPDATE: Richard will be speaking to a fringe at this years UNISON NDC conference.  I will post timings and venue as soon as poss.

RSA Debates "The Spirit Level" 22 July 2010

I am a little early at Congress House waiting for tonight’s seminar by one of the authors of “The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better”. Checking my netbook I see that I still have my note from the Royal Society of the Arts (RSA) debate last year which I haven’t got around to posting. So at the risk of confusing things I might as well post it now – it will remind me of the issues. I’ll post on tonight soon (and not leave it 6 months this time)

RSA CEO Matthew Taylor chaired the lunchtime meeting. He remarked that he had never seen the lecture theatre so packed. The debate was between Peter Saunders and Christopher Snowden (Spirit Level Deniers) and the authors of “The Spirit Level” - Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson.

Christopher Snowden spoke first and claimed “The Spirit Level” was a delusion. The charts used actually do not show any link between “happiness” and inequality. People “happy” from greater income. But "happy" is only one indicator. No significantly significant coloration. No significant evidence that inequality in itself causes ill-health and not income or other factors. One exception is over life expectancy and inequality. But the evidence is that there is no direct link between inequality and life expectancy.

The authors are selective about which countries used to compare so not to spoil their argument. Portugal, not mentioned. Japan may have little obesity but this is due to Asian culture rather than greater equality.

For Peter Saunders the problem is the use of statistical “outliers”. For example “income inequality and homicide”. Need in statistics to take out the USA which is an “outlier”. There is a reliance on such exceptions. USA on high child obesity and Japan with its high life expectancy. Take Japan out (greater life expectancy due to eating more oily fish rather than equality) and the arguments fail. As a Professor of Statistics he would have failed his student’s papers if they used these arguments.

Teenage births rates are the same. There are differences due to historic and sociological reasons - nothing to do with inequality. Look at third variable? Look not only at inequality but look at the link between homicide and African Americans. Ethnicity predicts homicide twice as much as inequality. This is the same for infant mortality. 18 times more likely to predict infant mortality as income inequality. He is upset at being accused of a racist slur.

Richard Wilkinson then spoke and defended their use of statistics. They didn’t use the most dramatic statistics. They did not self select and used respected and independent World Bank statistics on the 50 richest countries. Their results are based on the data. Poor health increases with stress. It is implausible that chronic stress does not cause worse health. The suggestion to remove black Afro-Americans from data is like removing manual workers in the UK.

Final speaker was Kate Pickett. All the research had been peer reviewed and responses published online. She claimed that her opponents had misquoted her and that she would fail any of her students who misquoted facts. White homicide rates in America, in the south and the north, are still associated with inequality.

Next was Q&A panel. I asked Kate and Richard whether there is a link with greater inequality in USA when compared to Scandinavian and levels of trade union density. Which Matthew Taylor asked me did I mean that if you joined the GMB you would live 5 years longer? I pointed out that I was a UNISON member. The answer was that they had not researched this point yet.

You can read more and download an audio file of the event here. I’ll post a picture from the July event when I get home. UPDATE: done.  The good guys obviously are on the left :)  Buy the book here