How economic inequality harms societies | Richard Wilkinson

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  • Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
  • www.ted.com We feel instinctively that societies with huge income gaps are somehow going wrong. Richard Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows what gets worse when rich and poor are too far apart: real effects on health, lifespan, even such basic values as trust.
    TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at www.ted.com/tra....

Комментарии • 2,5 тыс.

  • @jadsglobalvlog
    @jadsglobalvlog 6 лет назад +1142

    anyone doing their godalming college homework

  • @TeslaShambles
    @TeslaShambles 12 лет назад +5

    This fits very well with what the statistics show. It does not matter about how rich you are, it is the fact that your position in the system is very important and that you do not spend much time truly socializing with people at a lower level of social position. Social stratification and the mistrust that follows can lead to stuff such as what happened during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

  • @davecullins1606
    @davecullins1606 6 лет назад +3

    MAH GAWWWDDD
    Wonder if it start being disadvantagous if the equality gets too close to total equality.

  • @melindayuan7567
    @melindayuan7567 7 лет назад +1

    The beginning of the video shows correlation, but not causation

  • @TheUnlearntWorld
    @TheUnlearntWorld 3 года назад +1

    oh i just reviewed this book on my channel - its AMAZING!!!

  • @angelafujiwara2580
    @angelafujiwara2580 11 лет назад +4

    The statistics make Japan seem like a model country, but it's far from it. There's a lot of poverty and mental illness in Japan, but people just don't talk about it. There's a saying that "the nail that sticks out always gets hammered down." If you're not like everybody else you are put to shame. Japan has a high suicide rate, death from overwork, and hikikomori (social shut-ins).

    • @Urza26
      @Urza26 10 лет назад

      Yup absolutely agree.

  • @MissBooization
    @MissBooization 11 лет назад

    Where has Richard Wilkinson gone??

  • @johnnyyoung8294
    @johnnyyoung8294 7 лет назад +32

    It's so sickening how many of the people on the list of billionaires inherited their parents business.
    Hard work huh? I think not so much. Not when your parents die and hand over the already well run billion dollar business to you. The Koch family is a perfect example of this

    • @hectorvega621
      @hectorvega621 6 лет назад +2

      Why can't we have a Democratic Company. We're workers can voice their opinions and concerns, as well as electing a CEO, and can never be inherent.

    • @hectorvega621
      @hectorvega621 6 лет назад

      I also like to say.
      We have no Individuality, but rather you inherent it.

    • @fromlefttoright6168
      @fromlefttoright6168 6 лет назад +6

      Your parents are free to do what they please with their own money and assets. What part of that is sickening?

    • @wisepersonsay3142
      @wisepersonsay3142 6 лет назад +1

      Pretty much so in Japan. The inheritance tax is very high as compared to other developed nations. That is another factor why Japan is keeping the gap low.

    • @mirmalchik
      @mirmalchik 6 лет назад +6

      Totally agreed. Inheritance tax should be 100% over $1 million. Everyone arguing against that licks boots. Maybe one day the rich will realize their opulence would be less disgusting if they didn't threaten their employees with homelessness and destitution and death in the streets in order to force us to work harder. Maybe one day there won't be more empty homes than there are people forced to live on the streets. Maybe one day the rich will realize that taxes are just guillotine insurance. But I wouldn't count on it. I think it's much more important to get together with friends and neighbors who are just as disgusted and do something about it. Direct action, mutual aid, union organizing, and independent education are all great tactics imo.
      Also, +Hector Vega look up how worker co-ops work. Spanish manufacturing giant Mondragon isn't perfect, but they're at least an example of how successful at growth co-ops can be if they focus on it. Economist Richard Wolff's organization Democracy at Work has a lot of good material on co-ops as well.

  • @efortune357
    @efortune357 7 лет назад +421

    Time marks and quotes
    0:20 “I think the intuition that inequality is divisive and socially corrosive has been around since before the French Revolution. What’s changed is we can now look at the evidence, we can compare societies, more and less equal societies, and see what inequality does.”
    0:52 “I want to start though, with a paradox. This shows you life expectancy against Gross National Income. How rich countries are on average and you see the countries on the right like Norway and USA are twice as rich as Israel, Greece, and Portugal on the left and it makes no difference to their life expectancy at all. There’s no suggestion of a relationship there. But if we look within our societies, there are extraordinary social gradients in health running right across society. This again is life expectancy. These are small areas of England and Whales, the poorest on the right, the richest on the left, not a difference between the poor and the rest of us, even the people just below the top have less good health than the people at the top.
    1:40 “So income means something very important within our societies and nothing between them. The explanation of that paradox is that within our societies we’re looking at relative income or social position, social status, where we are in relation to each other and the size of the gaps between us. And as soon as you’ve got that idea you should immediately wonder ‘What happened if we widened the differences, or compressed them, make the income differences bigger or smaller?
    3:10 *(Graph) Index of Social Problems and Inequality:
    -Life expectancy
    -Math & Literacy
    -Infant mortatlity
    -Homicides
    -Imprisonment
    -Teenage births
    -Trust
    -Mental Illness, including drug & alcohol addiction
    -Social Mobility
    3:50 “The more unequal countries doing worse on all these kinds of social problems. It’s an extraordinary close correlation. But if you look at that same index of health and social problems in relation to GNP per capita, Gross National Income, there’s nothing there.”
    4:45 *(Graph) “Child well-being is better in more equal countries”
    5:05 “What all the data I’ve shown you so far says the same thing. The average well-being of our societies is not dependent any longer on national income and economic growth. That’s very important in poorer countries but not in the rich, developed world.”
    5:35 *(Graph) “People in more unequal countries trust each other less”
    “Here for instance this is trust. It’s simply the proportion of the population who agree most people can be trusted, comes from the World Values Survey. You see at the more unequal end it’s about 15% of the population who feel they can trust others. But in the more equal societies it rises to 60% or 65%.”
    6:05 “I may say we did all this work twice. We did it first on these rich, developed countries. And then as a separate test bed we repeated it all on the 50 American states. Asking just the same question, do the more unequal states do worse on all these kinds of measures.”
    6:30 “Basically we found that almost anything that’s related to trust internationally is related to trust amongst the states and that’s a separate test bed. We’re not just talking about a fluke.”
    6:45 *(Graph) “Mental illness is more common in more unequal societies”
    “This is mental illness. W.H.O. put together figures using the same diagnostic interviews on random samples of the population to allow us to compare rates of mental illness in each society. This (new graph) is the population with any mental illness in the preceding year. And it goes from about 8% up to 3x that. Whole societies with 3x the mental illness of others. And again, closely related to inequality.”
    7:18 *(Graph) Homicide rates are higher in more unequal US states and Canadian provinces
    “This is violence. These red dots are American states and the blue triangles are Canadian provinces. But look at the scale of the differences. It goes from 15 homicides per million up to 150.”
    7:35 *(Graph) “This is the proportion of the population in prison. There’s about a tenfold difference there, log scale up the side, but it goes from about 40 to 400 people in prison. That relationship is not mainly driven by more crime. In some places that’s part of it. But most of it is about more punitive sentencing, harsher sentencing. And the more unequal societies are also more likely also to retain the death penalty.”
    8:05 *( Graph) More children drop out of High School in more unequal US states
    “Here we have children dropping out of high school. Again, quite big differences, extraordinarily damaging. If you’re talking about using the talents of the population.”
    8:15 *(Graph) Social mobility is lower in more unequal countries
    “This is social mobility. It’s actually a measure of mobility based on income. Basically it’s asking do rich fathers have rich sons and poor fathers have poor sons, or is there no relationship between the two? And at the more unequal end father’s income is much more important, in the UK, USA. In the Scandinavian countries father’s income is much less important. There’s more social mobility. And as we like to say and I know there’s a lot of Americans in the audience here, if Americans want to live the American dream they should go to Denmark.”
    9:05 “They’re all problems that tend to be more common at the bottom of the social gradient but there are endless problems with social gradients that are worse in more unequal countries. Not just a little bit worse but anything from twice as common to ten times as common. Think of the expense, the human cost of that.”
    9:38
    “In graph after graph we find that countries that do worse whatever the outcome seem to be the more unequal ones. And the ones that do well seem to be the Nordic countries and Japan. So what we’re looking at is general social dysfunction related to inequality. It’s not just one or two things that go wrong. It’s most things.
    11:00 “I’m not talking about perfect equality. I’m talking about what exists in rich, developed market democracies.”
    11:10 “And now we’re in a really surprising part of this picture. Is that it’s not just the poor who are affected by inequality. There seems to be some truth in John Dunn’s ‘No man is an island’.
    11:25 *(Graph) The benefits of greater equality are not confined to the poor but extend to all social classes
    “In a number of studies it’s possible to compare how people do in more and less equal countries at each level in the social hierarchy.”
    11:32 *(Graph) Infant mortality by class: Sweden compared with England & Wales
    12:20 “The biggest difference is at the bottom of society. But even at the top there seems to be a small benefit to a more equal society. We show that on about five different sets of data covering educational outcomes and health in the United States and internationally. And that seems to be the general picture. That greater equality makes most difference at the bottom but has some benefits even at the top.”
    12:45 What’s going on? Psycho-Social affects
    13:30 *(Graph) What kind of stressful tasks raise stress hormones most?
    14:40 Some Questions:
    -Is this just picking and choosing data?
    -What about other countries?
    -Why not control for other factors?
    -What about causality?
    15:30 “What about causality? Correlation in itself doesn’t prove causality. We spend a good bit of time and indeed people know the causal links quite well in some of these outcomes. The big change in our understanding of drivers of health in the rich, developed world is how important chronic stress from social sources is, affecting the immune system, the cardiovascular system. Or for instance, the reason why violence becomes more common in more unequal societies is because people are sensitive to being looked down on.”
    16:10 *(Graph) What can be done?
    Increase differences before tax:
    -Increase company democracy-employee ownership etc
    -Promote more directors from within companies
    Taxes & benefits:
    -Stop tax avoidance
    -End tax havens
    -Make taxation progress again
    16:25 “I think the take home message though is that we can improve the real quality of human life by reducing the differences in incomes between us. Suddenly we have a handle on the psycho-social well-being whole societies and that’s exciting.”

    • @wisepersonsay3142
      @wisepersonsay3142 6 лет назад +10

      The French Revolution took place against the aristocrats taking advantage over the poor. At least the French poor of that time had guts to revolt. These days, the mankind are so heavily programmed to believe one has to have money and education to protest against the Gov't and establishment. The mankind lost self-determination. That is the root cause of all the human problems. ''Gutless Society''.

    • @PS-os6sr
      @PS-os6sr 6 лет назад +3

      @@wisepersonsay3142 Misinformed society, more like it.

    • @CaptainYbara
      @CaptainYbara 5 лет назад +23

      My professor asked to watch this video for the assignment and comment on it. Thank you so much, you saved my time.

    • @GBart
      @GBart 5 лет назад +7

      Wow, thank you!!

    • @frankrusk6172
      @frankrusk6172 5 лет назад

      @@wisepersonsay3142 it was a ewvoulrion set up by bankers tisk

  • @tehone8150
    @tehone8150 3 года назад +32

    The video is 10 years old now, and uni students like me are still dropping in due to our darn assignments lmao
    Very good ted talk though

    • @annefleurlewis2672
      @annefleurlewis2672 2 месяца назад

      Sad thing is we now all know. . .but nothing will be done about it

  • @samdoesvids1339
    @samdoesvids1339 4 года назад +145

    Every GCSE and A-Level Economics class has watched this video when you start the topic on Inequality and Poverty. No doubt the teacher will pause before every graph and the multi-choice test will come next. Classic.

    • @davgg9621
      @davgg9621 4 года назад +3

      Having my exam tomorrow

    • @samdoesvids1339
      @samdoesvids1339 4 года назад +1

      @@davgg9621 hof, good luck man

  • @purnabhishek
    @purnabhishek 3 года назад +29

    6:40 While the trend is correct, the measuring system is not fool proof (be it surveys or census). Because they are culture dependent.
    For instance, in Japan, majority of people or even doctors still don't recognise mental illness/depression as a legitimate medical problem. Hence you would obviously have low mental illness reports, because they don't even report in the first place! Even though majority of employees in Japan are overworked, and have depression, they don't even recognise it. That's the issue.

    • @がるがるg
      @がるがるg 2 года назад +2

      I'm Japanese and I agree with you about that.

    • @edenjung9816
      @edenjung9816 3 дня назад

      But by that logic, you would have to exclude every country. Because every country is different in their culture, which would influence the result differently. Thus making them all unable to be compared.
      In the end there is no perfect way to compare them. Thus it's better to use one measurement for all. Making them somewhat comparable.

  • @amberunthank7209
    @amberunthank7209 2 года назад +34

    My mom is a teacher who owns her own home but is single, and we struggled. I have worked full-time since the age of fifteen and have paid into SS since age thirteen. I have never got in trouble in my entire life. I was in the Navy as a field hospital corpsman and now am a veteran who is 20% disabled. I get less than $300 per month with 20%. I was an LPN before going back to school, and at age 38, I will graduate with my BSW. I will still not be able to afford to purchase a home, and since my husband died, I can't make a high enough salary to support myself with my two children. I didn't grow up with a father or male figure. Females have a difficult time getting ahead. Nothing is equal in the United States.

    • @RCenal
      @RCenal 2 дня назад

      You act like men have everything just handed to them and never struggle

  • @pjmingi8709
    @pjmingi8709 3 года назад +21

    Any sociology students here? Or just economics?

  • @dismith73
    @dismith73 10 лет назад +71

    What is it about this data that makes people react how they do? What is at stake, what would be gained or lost by accepting that this may be true?
    It seems that some viewers feel threatened by the idea that there is something negative about current arrangements in rich developed countries.
    But are they saying that they believe that large inequalities should be defended for some reason?

    • @PS-os6sr
      @PS-os6sr 6 лет назад +30

      I think it's because they would need to accept that they adapted themselves to a broken system. Therefore accept that they are "broken". In a way...

    • @WAVYU5
      @WAVYU5 5 лет назад +8

      conditioning

    • @svensvensson3545
      @svensvensson3545 4 года назад

      Di Smith Some people are worried about this and it affecting equality of outcome rather than equality of opportunity. People are worried about how it will affect employability in the future.

    • @skybluskyblueify
      @skybluskyblueify 3 года назад +6

      Some countries don't like being evaluated in any negative way. This is especially bad for some people in the U.S. where jingoism is pretty prevalent. If they don't see their country as the best in the world they take it personally whereas they should not.

  • @vanities7374
    @vanities7374 6 лет назад +2

    Cool. He compares countries with homogenous societies to ones that are very diverse and then marvels at how diverse countries have more inequality. Is he not smart or just dishonest. Different cultural behaviors bring about different economic results no matter what the law of the land is. Does he honestly believe that a person in poverty in America will do much better in Denmark without altering their values and behavior.

    • @beth8972
      @beth8972 5 лет назад +3

      Denmark has a 87% white population. The US has a 78% white population. I fail to see how this 9% difference will produce dramatically different results on its own.

  • @ryanmark450
    @ryanmark450 4 года назад +78

    A very informative video with great primary source statistics! It was fascinating to learn about the social and economic impacts that greater wealth inequality between the lower and upper class on society will have on developed countries; Wilkinson mentioned problems such as high crime rates, higher population with obesity, lack of government trust, and drug addiction that were associated with high-income inequality which are undesirable. It's a real shame that many developed countries such as the UK and the United States are unable to address this issue with solutions. Furthermore, it would have been nice if the speaker highlighted specific government policies or examples that would reduce inequality.

    • @kawaii_princess_castle
      @kawaii_princess_castle 2 года назад

      And this is more health costs at the end!! More people with obesity with the health problems that go together like diabetis, heart problems. And more mentally ill people means more laboral and health costs!! Laboral because they cannot work and health because they need medicación go to the doctor! More prisioners means more prison costs too

    • @LeanAndMean44
      @LeanAndMean44 2 года назад +1

      Different taxes. That one should be obvious. Socialism!

    • @ronaldreagan-ik6hz
      @ronaldreagan-ik6hz Год назад

      Get government out of the way- not more in the way

    • @searchwikipediafallacy5567
      @searchwikipediafallacy5567 8 месяцев назад

      This guy has everything backwards. High crime rates, obesity, mental health issues and drug use cause inequality and not the other way around.
      Scandinavia has less inequality because population has no diversity. Change population there and have people from poor countries and it will have same inequalities.
      He is in the business of fooling people without critical thinking with data.
      How many people will clap or like my presentation if I say your life in the long term is about your choices and not about how rich or poor your neighbors are.
      Populist ideas are always liked by people and such ideas cause inequality and it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy.

    • @DisforDelight
      @DisforDelight 3 месяца назад

      @@searchwikipediafallacy5567I think it is you who has gotten the wrong end of the stick, old boy.

  • @topnetworkersgroup
    @topnetworkersgroup 7 лет назад +91

    "it's not just the poor who are effected by income inequality "

    • @TCt83067695
      @TCt83067695 5 лет назад +2

      @John Dwyer huh?

    • @melissaortiz8710
      @melissaortiz8710 3 года назад +2

      @@TCt83067695 He specifies that it makes the largest difference at the bottom of the scale regarding lower income because it is a spectrum, looking at a social hierarchy.

    • @Rosetteismyname
      @Rosetteismyname 2 года назад

      Oh those poor rich people

    • @topnetworkersgroup
      @topnetworkersgroup 2 года назад

      @@Rosetteismyname correct. Many are physically wealthy but morally poor. Many develop mental issues aswell because they're not using thier wealth to improve society.

  • @ericjohnsavage
    @ericjohnsavage 4 года назад +10

    All he did was point out the existence of inequality, but didn't explain why it's there. He assumed that every derivative society measure was caused by inequality, when it's actually caused by what's causing the inequality. Once again he's proving the danger of using correlations.
    And as other comments have pointed out, using countries like Japan and Sweden is weak, given their homogenous cultures.
    As for blaming crime on punitive measures. Come on, be serious.

    • @mauricerostaing4281
      @mauricerostaing4281 3 года назад

      Hi
      Income and equality is a good thing. It makes you work harder!
      Thanks for listening!

    • @Nelcomarproductions
      @Nelcomarproductions 3 года назад

      Nature made us this way. Life is built on the success and failures of humanity. If nature was equal, then there would be alot more human species still alive today.

    • @muckvix
      @muckvix 3 года назад +1

      I'm glad that at least a few comments point that out. What's scary is that the overwhelming majority of the audience doesn't see that. This is why it's so easy to spread trash theories.

    • @axelnils
      @axelnils 3 года назад

      Incarceration levels are largely a result of harsh punishments as opposed to rehabilitation.
      Sweden isn’t homogeneous.

  • @clarestucki5151
    @clarestucki5151 5 лет назад +2

    People are BORN unequal - unequal in talent, unequal in skill, unequal in ambition. Why is it a surprise that they are unequal in productivity (aka 'income')? Would you prefer everybody be equally UNproductive?? Stupid idea!

    • @beth8972
      @beth8972 5 лет назад +2

      So... Are American children born more inherently "unequal" than those born in the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, etc?

  • @Miltonchefedosets
    @Miltonchefedosets 4 года назад +11

    If only every single soul in Brazil could hear and understand this...it is not your fault.

  • @joshlicht1359
    @joshlicht1359 Год назад +19

    The terribly sad thing is, in the eleven years since the talk was given, house prices have essentially doubled in the western world. Successive governments have done nothing to change this unfolding calamity. This increase in house prices has not been matched by wage growth, essentially making the wealth gap even more toxic.

    • @dougking5703
      @dougking5703 Год назад

      There's absolutely nothing wrong with income inequality

    • @joshlicht1359
      @joshlicht1359 Год назад +5

      @@dougking5703 Well we will see about that, as the next century unfolds, some inequality will always exist - more a question of scale.

    • @dougking5703
      @dougking5703 Год назад

      @@joshlicht1359 we all choose different paths so u certainly can't expect equality. Everyone has 24hr 7 days a week. It's what u do with it

    • @thechumbucket8986
      @thechumbucket8986 10 месяцев назад +2

      ​@@dougking5703you are so naive

    • @dougking5703
      @dougking5703 10 месяцев назад

      @@thechumbucket8986 you're the naive one lol

  • @galdi7947
    @galdi7947 4 года назад +14

    Does anyone else notice how Singapore is stated as the country with the greatest levels of inequality but the conveniently absent rom all subsequent graphs until prisoners, then removed again?

    • @danielholta5721
      @danielholta5721 3 года назад +2

      Not removed. There just wasn't data.

    • @flowertowerrr
      @flowertowerrr 5 месяцев назад +1

      Please just Google for the data on Singapore. It's all there. The guy above clearly doesnt know much or cherry picked his data.
      The reason why there are high prisoners per population is because Singapore has a good and trusted police force.

  • @TheRadicalCentrist.1776
    @TheRadicalCentrist.1776 5 лет назад +8

    What if it's not "inequality causes social problems", it's "social problems cause inequality". That completely changes the discussion. If you believe the former, you believe in transfering wealth. If you believe the latter, you believe in helping people acquire their own wealth. What if income mobility isn't about society holding poor people back, but about some societies knowing how to properly motivate everyone. Causation matters tremendously here, but he only blew through it at the end.

    • @adrianhutabarat1736
      @adrianhutabarat1736 3 года назад +6

      Ok but we know it is the first one, because inequality increased in the US after Reagan and things only got really worse after him.

    • @TheLucasbr152
      @TheLucasbr152 3 года назад

      @@adrianhutabarat1736 Why do you guarantee that inequality is the only reason for that??

    • @Competitive_Antagonist
      @Competitive_Antagonist 2 года назад

      What if its a positive feedback loop like CO2 and global average temperature?

    • @abrechter1489
      @abrechter1489 Год назад

      Hypothetically, what policies would you implement to change social problems?

    • @TheRadicalCentrist.1776
      @TheRadicalCentrist.1776 Год назад

      @@abrechter1489 - Great question. To me, it's the core that was outlined at the founding of the US. A number of these were not properly implemented, such as slavery existing, women not being able to vote. Some have trouble to this day, such as proper legal defense when you're poor. However, this doesn't change these rights as the goal. It just means we're still working on them. That's different from those who say these rights don't work. They do, we just need to keep making them "more perfect" as with our union as a whole. The rights as I see them are below. There may be more. But it is always the rights of the individual to be free from the oppression of both the governance and the masses. Never the kinds of "rights" that involve transfers of wealth.
      Right to own property. (Foundation of capitalism)
      Right not to be owned as property.
      Freedom of/from religion.
      Freedom speech.
      Freedom of the press.
      Right to self-defense. (Including guns)
      Right against double jeopardy.
      Right against self-incrimination.
      Right to trial by jury of peers.
      Right to legal representation. (Even if you're poor)
      Right to a redress of grievances.
      Right against unreasonable search and seizure.
      Right to a speedy trial.
      Right against excessive bail.
      Right against excessive punishment.
      Right against cruel and unusual punishment.
      Right not to quarter soldiers.
      Right to vote.
      Right to run for and hold office.

  • @zackeryzackery9381
    @zackeryzackery9381 3 года назад +2

    I agree that education and medical could be better in the US. But socialism and redistribution of income is NOT the answer. It never is. Countries like Sweden have all moved away from socialism to capitalism. That's why there is greater social mobility. The US needs to provide more affordable trade schools and colleges and stop catering to foreign students.
    We should base our solutions on "he who benefits, pays". That will drive the optimal behaviors. Socialism / Redistribution are the tools of the unjust and unethical.

  • @diamonddormeus4611
    @diamonddormeus4611 Год назад +1

    Hi Osu sociology class

  • @jamesbell6996
    @jamesbell6996 2 года назад +28

    I watched this around 8 years ago and it stuck with me like nothing else. It has completely changed the way that I think about the world.

    • @TedApelt
      @TedApelt Год назад +2

      Hopefully, this will happen in enough people to make a difference.

    • @daniellassander
      @daniellassander Год назад

      I think what changed your way of looking at the world was either your lack of economic understanding so he can lie to you nonstop and you believe it or your doctor gave you a lobotomy when you werent looking.
      Because what he isnt giving you information about in this video is how economy works in reality, to start a business you need investors, but now you have redistributed too much money so there are no investors. So no new jobs are created, so wage growth stops dead in its track while inflation takes over and your income which doesent increase is worth 2% less every year, and in 20 years time you have to sell your house just to feed yourself, sadly you bought it for 500,000 and today you sell it for 50k leaving you with a bank loan of 450k.... so you cant afford to feed yourself so you starve to death when your 40-50.
      You helped everyone a lot here didnt you.

    • @ronaldreagan-ik6hz
      @ronaldreagan-ik6hz Год назад +1

      Really? As if personal choices is not the driving factor?

  • @rogggggerful
    @rogggggerful 3 года назад +4

    The extreme inequality we have now favors extreme monopolies, the wealthy billionaires absorb all the money from the lower classes, store it away in fiscal heavens and so the money is not reinvested. Middle class people on the other hand reinvest almost all the money and so the businnes cycle continues. So, unless you tax away the extreme inequality we have now, you wont have prosperity, this is just 1+1. You have either a middle class economy or you have a billionaires and poor people economy, you cant have both. The "free market"-mantra is just pure ideology, not factual in the real world

  • @timwilson8913
    @timwilson8913 7 лет назад +1

    Where did Singapore, the most unequal country from chart 1 (2.59min), dissapear to in chart 2 (3.29min) ?? Frustrating when people (with a good argument) manipulate their findings to suit their argument...then singapore jumps back into the chart game at 7.42min conveniently..

  • @JuliusX9
    @JuliusX9 7 месяцев назад +2

    Would like to have an update of this after all the "crisis" the world faces now.

  • @alexqiu144
    @alexqiu144 4 года назад +11

    The issue of income disparity is often overlooked by many. Even if people do realize such disparity, there is no clear solution. As people act according to their own interests, higher taxation on the rich would only create conflicts between the upper class and the government. Thus, the government should implement a combination of policies to ameliorate the issue. Hopefully, situations have been improved in the last 8 years

    • @VelhaGuardaTricolor
      @VelhaGuardaTricolor 2 года назад

      You couldn't be further from the truth. You can hope all you want, but the system is designed to create inequality at higher and higher rates. As all the data from the last 50 years clearly shows.
      It is very simple to eradicate this problem. Simply make social inequality a crime. What are the laws for? To create justice right? So. There! It ends all the unsolvable problems of all societies and the World.
      The only problem is that the sociopaths won't have their golden cars and watches. Well we give them fake ones in their mental institutions.

    • @myliege5800
      @myliege5800 8 месяцев назад

      There is a clear solution, just some people will actively impede it

  • @dookiecheez
    @dookiecheez 13 лет назад +23

    It doesn't feel as though merely liking, favoriting, and sharing this adequetly expresses how awesome this video is. I think it might be the best Ted Talk I've ever seen.

  • @erigo91
    @erigo91 4 года назад +9

    Loved this, his charts transcend minorities and it breaks down the notion that the USA is "the greatest country on earth."

  • @whiteshadow59
    @whiteshadow59 3 года назад +1

    Japan has a pretty high suicide rate though, and aren't they likely not to report mental illness as well?

  • @yeahyeah9856
    @yeahyeah9856 5 лет назад +1

    Correlation is not causation. Just because countries have income inequality does not mean it causes these social problems. Look at Japan, a place where people are much more hardworking, uniform, conservative, it is not surprising they have a more equal population. On the other hand, the USA is much more racially, culturally, intellectually diverse, liberal place, you expect more difference among people, which will lead them to different outcomes. You either have liberty, diversity, constant progress, accompanied by vast inequality, or you have uniformity, conservation, and constant performance, accompanied by stagnation. It is naive to say one form of society is absolutely better than the other, or it is possible to have both.

  • @AccipeHocc
    @AccipeHocc 12 лет назад +4

    Singapore, the one with the highest inequality according to the data, was excluded from all the following charts. It seems that Singapore would prove his thesis to be wrong. Hence the removal. What dishonesty!!

  • @GBart
    @GBart 7 лет назад +70

    This is what broke the Libertarianism spell for me

    • @mashotoshaku
      @mashotoshaku 6 лет назад +13

      So you decided you want your neighbours Porche???

    • @uwetieforrest
      @uwetieforrest 5 лет назад +1

      dude... come on, you ended up watching this video somehow, you gotta be more educated than that!?

    • @manictiger
      @manictiger 5 лет назад +1

      ​@@The2ndUsername It still is subject to other variables. There's a ton of running hypothesises as to why places near the equator seem to be shittier (scientific term) than others. Trying to draw conclusions from a correlation without any other data to support them, is not scientific.

    • @johnr9763
      @johnr9763 5 лет назад +4

      Yes. I want to say that I myself do value freedom and freedom from oppression. But Libertarians tend to ignore the effects of extreme income inequality.

    • @bradm6287
      @bradm6287 5 лет назад +2

      I am glad to hear it. Welcome to Team Reality.

  • @WMfin
    @WMfin 10 лет назад +175

    This is absolutely one of the most important videos there are in the internet!

    • @juicyappleish
      @juicyappleish 10 лет назад +17

      This is one of the most idiotic videos there are in the internet.
      The speaker is assuming that there is a fixed pie of wealth. That if someone gets rich, that must mean someone else has to get poorer. That is false.

    • @WMfin
      @WMfin 10 лет назад +19

      He never did that kind of assumption. It is not about how rich someone is it is about how big is the gap between richest and the poorest.
      And even though he would have said something like that it would be completelly true. There is only so much money so if someone has it, someone else doesn't have it.
      You might wanna check out this: gawker.com/rich-get-richer-poor-get-poorer-1631000921?fb_action_ids=10203633878780046&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
      (and the links)
      It shows how richer are getting richer as poorest are going to be even poorer.
      This is not a subject of opinion.

    • @juicyappleish
      @juicyappleish 10 лет назад +9

      WMfin ""There is only so much money so if someone has it, someone else doesn't have it.""
      Man, you're so stupid. Study some basic economics. The money supply always grow in order to accommodate the growing supply of good and services. The Government printsIf the money supply isn't growing, then how com we have inflation? You see how stupid you are?
      If a businessman earns $50 billion, that means there is additional $50 billion in the economy in the form of additional cash and goods and services.
      And billionaires do NOT keep billions of cash under their mattresses. They INVEST their billions in new factories and companies that create new products and more jobs. And even if they just put money in the bank, the bank doesn't hoard the money. It loans out the money to other people. So money is circulated.
      Learn some basic economics, liberal socialist fool

    • @WMfin
      @WMfin 10 лет назад +15

      Why do you have to call me with names?
      Still, even though money is in motion being circulated the system getting money is taking it away from someone else. If you use word "earns" it means it is away from someone. If a businessman loans it, well I think you are well aware how it is just numbers in bit-space and there is no money in the system to cover interest.
      And what it comes to seeing billionaires as a saviours. Well, take a look at the world and tell me how much good they are doing with 40% of earth's resources to poorest 40% of people.
      By the time newly created money has fallen to poorer class it has already lost it's value and new money crisis is at the door.
      AND since I am stupid liberal socialist, just today I read how rightwing-fools here in Finland didn't like the trade union movement because because of them people are getting too much money. Still I can't believe that those kind of people would do normal job even with that wage doubled.

    • @Jimbobasaur
      @Jimbobasaur 10 лет назад +3

      204 ancap cult followers disliked after molyneux's commands.

  • @ab0032
    @ab0032 11 лет назад +1

    Richard Wilkinson is barking up the wrong tree. It's not about more equal and in less equal.
    It's about free and less free. Freer societies tend to be richer and you want to be poor in a rich society like Switzerland or Germany, where the poor have 8000$ or more a year and not in a place like Zimbabwe or North Korea. People may be mostly equal in North Korea, but what does it help them? Equally poor and equally non free, is that what Richard Wilkinson wants us to believe to be best?

  • @ab0032
    @ab0032 11 лет назад +1

    You got it all wrong, corruption is not a result of freedom. Yet you are right that corruption is the great evil. If your thinking was right, it would be best to take all freedom, jail everybody to stop all corruption but that is complete nonsense, because then also all activity would end and we would all die in poverty.
    You should let go of the notion that we would be all better off if we were all equally poor. It is much better to be unequal and richer. Envy of what others have is a sin.

  • @SphincterOfDoom
    @SphincterOfDoom 10 лет назад +15

    Notice how his graphs aren't consistent with what countries are excluded and included. Some are just missing Singapore-which is an exception to just about every one of his claims-and some are missing half the original 23.

    • @soufiane6873
      @soufiane6873 5 лет назад +1

      I have noticed the same thing. Some countries are included and excluded in different graphs. And, Singapore was, in one graph, much less than USA, but in 7:45 it has higher inequality and imprisonment rate.
      He also speaks about data selection in 14:30.

    • @danielholta5721
      @danielholta5721 3 года назад

      Or there just wasn't data.

  • @eddiechen9968
    @eddiechen9968 4 года назад +32

    Interesting video! It is fascinating to see how GNP per capita is much less of an indicator of economic well-being and how important relative income is between the various wealth classes. After seeing the social problems that income equality creates, it is increasingly clear that we should be focusing on solving the differences between wealth classes over this tunnel visioned mindset of increasing GNP per capita. Well done!

    • @nerolilin
      @nerolilin 3 года назад

      You deserve to live in Jia Bian Gou.

  • @wilsonl8244
    @wilsonl8244 4 года назад +5

    It is very intriguing how these different health and social statistics, such as the proportion of imprisoned persons and life expectancy, are used in this video to distinguish the social differences which can be deduced from income inequality and gross national income per capita. This illustrates very clearly how income inequality, and not gross national income per capita, is the main driver of health and social problems in our society. This inequitable distribution of income widely prevalent in developed countries today, such as Canada in which we personally live, creates gaps in standards of living among different demographics. For our country as a whole, we can improve our quality of life by reducing income disparities, especially in the top 1%. We applaud the evaluation Richard Wilkinson provides about his own study and statistics near the end of the video, which give his statements greater credibility. The use of a variety of different countries and his justification for his choices support this as well. We believe that governments should act, not only in the interest of economic growth, but also in the interest of economic development, and pay attention to measures such as the human development index (HDI) in drafting and enacting their policies and budget.
    - Wilson and Pensee

  • @abarford1
    @abarford1 12 лет назад +1

    @thevigilantone No I dont discredit them but depression is dianosed by a questionaire, did you know that? How many people lie or more often exaggerate their feelings, instead of just going through a tough time or being a softy they're dianosed with depression, it's a very diffrent thing or perhapes autism, I've met a boy that was dianosed with autism (my ex's younger brother) who listened to every word I said because I was strict, his mother gave him no discipline and he didn't respond to her.

  • @Indivisible_Individual
    @Indivisible_Individual 2 месяца назад +1

    Psst.. this isn’t the place for thinking or logic based reasoning. It’s where people come to be shellacked in a coat of superiority made of their own inner sense of inferiority. It’s where envy is made into a moral virtue. After which, we can all sleep peacefully knowing that our lives are meaningless, that we can do nothing to improve our lives, and that anyone whose life does have meaning and whose actions have improved their life must be sacrificed - because they don’t fit nicely onto our premade color coordinated scatter plots.

  • @markcromp
    @markcromp 11 лет назад +16

    I'm sure he's talking a lot of sense but I'm so distracted by the creases he got when he took his shirt straight out of the packet & put it on.

  • @davidwardrop9214
    @davidwardrop9214 9 лет назад +7

    I think that this video highlights an integral part of sustainability i.e. everything is connected.

    • @jbzrs
      @jbzrs 8 лет назад

      +David Wardrop This will stand the test of time and will be taught in schools in about 5-10 years.

    • @Wolcik3000
      @Wolcik3000 7 лет назад

      it might be tought in schools regardless if it stands the test of time, e.g. mandatory social studies and gender fluidity

    • @erebus973
      @erebus973 5 лет назад

      Basically what trauma informed systems will teach you and that is now being taught through all law enforcement and psychology professionals now

  • @Jianju69
    @Jianju69 2 года назад +1

    Poor Japanese people eat healthier than poor Americans, not because they're wealthier, but because they simply make better choices. Poor Americans have plenty of options, yet continue to make unhealthy, unwise choices.

  • @sandphoenix4296
    @sandphoenix4296 3 года назад +1

    I also could pull a bunch of one-sided facts that prove you wrong. This was more of an essay on why America sucks.

  • @Minoeman
    @Minoeman 11 лет назад +5

    Yes. My Ninth Grade "World" History / Geography class felt more like an "America is best" class.
    It's because they teach it in school.

  • @kitchenersarmy
    @kitchenersarmy 10 лет назад +5

    Correlation does not equal causation. Sigh....

    • @AmariFukui
      @AmariFukui 10 лет назад +11

      Saying that doesn't mean it's automatically wrong. Sigh...

    • @kitchenersarmy
      @kitchenersarmy 10 лет назад +4

      But stating a correlation doesn't automatically mean it's right, and since he's the one making the claim the burden of proof is on him,

    • @AmariFukui
      @AmariFukui 10 лет назад +3

      Theo-Retical Fair enough, i read the book in which he goes into much more detail about this issue, im not sure if he proves beyond any doubt but he does at least recognise and acknowledge this.

    • @eduardosacasa5007
      @eduardosacasa5007 10 лет назад +2

      he mentions that at about 15:27

    • @GlobalTruthNet
      @GlobalTruthNet 10 лет назад +4

      Yes of course not but one of the most telling labels of causation is multiple unrelated correlations leading to the same ends. How will we prove that people are more likely to commit crime or fall to the pressures of predispositioned mental illness under stress, and that stress is more severe in cases where the individual is reflective of social pressure? That would require intricate knowledge not only on the chemical reactions within the brain, but the full process of mRNA and it's interaction with personality. So we won't be seeing causality in things like this for a few years.. The best we can do is be philosophical and assume such things are true based on deductive evidence. So far that's true and therefore we should try to make changes in order to better our society.
      You can go ahead and still be skeptical, but most of the intelligent community is satisfied with this kind of reasoning for now, and we can of course go on without you.

  • @Slashtap
    @Slashtap 13 лет назад +7

    Really well presented case. I like that he goes to the data rather than rely on personal testimonies to argue his point, unlike in most other TED talks.

  • @VaughnBresheare
    @VaughnBresheare 12 лет назад +1

    We are products of our environment, broken homes, poor education, no healthcare, nutrition less food, heavy taxation, burdensome housing, false scarcity, high unemployment, concentrated wealth. It's easy when people are fearful, disorganized, feeling separate. They want us to fight amongst ourselves so we can be vulnerable to demagogues who will say it's because of government, immigrants, blacks,when in actuality we are all struggling over a smaller and smaller share of a bigger AND BIGGER pie.

  • @rwoz
    @rwoz 8 лет назад +14

    Why not work on eliminating the irrational mindset of people comparing themselves to others instead? Why let envy rule?

    • @Wolcik3000
      @Wolcik3000 7 лет назад +5

      a little envy is healthy.
      wanting others to have as bad as you is bad, wanting to have good like others and working throwards this is good... simple as that

    • @23Scadu
      @23Scadu 6 лет назад +4

      Humans are social creatures. We're pretty much hard wired to compare ourselves and each other.

    • @mbinghamworks146
      @mbinghamworks146 6 лет назад +2

      Because it's biological.

  • @pascali7183
    @pascali7183 8 лет назад +9

    we need to replace this money system with a better system .....

    • @DC-sy5zv
      @DC-sy5zv 8 лет назад +4

      a currency where the volume is defined by the people who use it and the people who use it get to decide how much its worth, as well as an anarchy so that the market is truly free and the growth of wealth isn't stunted by government influence

    • @EarthUPC
      @EarthUPC 8 лет назад

      Look up the Venus Project (Resource Based Economy) Its really interesting.

    • @pascali7183
      @pascali7183 8 лет назад +1

      EarthONE UPC Very Interesting project indeed

    • @ab0032
      @ab0032 7 лет назад

      Yes, break the monopoly of government on money. People could use gold backed currency or Ƀitcoins instead of inflationary fiat money. We have to get rid of the central banks.
      Currently this money printing by government is like an extra tax, robbing people.

  • @mikemidulster
    @mikemidulster 7 лет назад +7

    An excellent piece of work!

  • @youboobnameisbailey
    @youboobnameisbailey 3 месяца назад +1

    What he doesn’t say is that he’s using income and wealth to measure this so called inequality. Money is the result of something else. A company can’t make money any more than a person can print off a few g’s as needed. People and companies produce a good or service which get purchased for an agreed upon price. If I built a piece of furniture and sold it for $1000 no one cares, if I sell 1,000,000 of them then people start noticing.
    There is no wealth/income disparity but rather a value disparity. Obviously the surgeon in a hospital makes way more than a guy washing dishes in the cafeteria.

    • @Indivisible_Individual
      @Indivisible_Individual 2 месяца назад

      At least I hope my surgeon’s making more than the dishwasher. I’d go even further and say I’m hoping my surgeon makes more than any other surgeon in the hospital. Money doesn’t create objective value, but there is a strong correlation between ability and earning.

  • @turkizno
    @turkizno 2 месяца назад +1

    Here as a 30 years old, looking over the comments like a history lesson. Half of my lifetime gone since the release of this piece.
    So, nothing really changed after 12 years, hasn't it?

  • @klemens33331
    @klemens33331 9 лет назад +4

    I found a solution to the problem: "Commonwealth!" Here's an example of how: a talented entrepreneurs enjoys the challenge to create a successful business. He then sells it to his employees, who then become owners; i.e. don't depend anymore on unions and low wages.
    The entrepreneur gets his money back with some extra and starts a new venture... and again selling it to his employees etc. and every time the entrepreneur gets his money back with some extra and starts an even bigger venture... Gradually, we all become self-employed business owners! If then the more greedy ones own more, the less greedy ones won't envy them. Imagine how proud an entrepreneur then could be after having turned 2000 low wage earners into well to do business owners!
    So, why it is not happening? Because most (if not all) talented entrepreneurs suffer from sordid greed! They believe only their talents deserve all the materialistic riches in our world. :( Reason: They failed to dismantle their inherited/ or environmentally acquired negative traits and thus are unable to develop their full human potential!
    Are they not worried that their grossly selfish behavior in the long run might ignite yet another "Kristallnacht"?

    • @klemens33331
      @klemens33331 9 лет назад

      I truly believe that there is more to life than materialistic greed. Let's remember: nature's laws burden the materialistic successful with the moral obligation to help alleviate the suffering of the materialistically poor.
      That's why, wouldn't it be smarter for the former to create and broaden a social safety net, which protects all citizens? - I mean, the least our wealthy capitalist society can afford is to secure the existence of every citizen! I am not asking too much, am I? It's not nobody's right to blame any individual for his materialistic misfortune. Even a drug addict is a citizen and human being, who deserves our help. The next step then should be to guide and encourage "a materialistic loser" to a better his/ her life.
      To some extent it's already implemented in some modern countries, such as in Europe, Canada, USA, Australia; albeit their social security is still fairly primitive, yet it points into the right direction...
      Yes, I did my share of philosophical pondering and insight originating about quality of life; even wrote a few (non-pious) books about it: The first one I titled: "A Guide To Personal Contentment", followed by a couple more, titled: "Grandpa's Insight". Goggle my name: Johannes K. Drinda

    • @klemens33331
      @klemens33331 9 лет назад

      I see it rather this way: The "power of the Universe" (i.e. nature, not the God of any pious business organization) allowed or chose us humans to mange planet Earth, under the condition that we follow nature's laws. Thus, all our actions are monitored and rewarded or compensated, accordingly.
      Most economist's might dismiss my insight as "unsubstantiated palaver", albeit their account figures support my reasoning.
      Thus, if we mismanage and so, fail to cooperate with nature's laws our planet long enough, nature is going to give up on us and simply recycle us, for we are only an "insignificant dot" in the Universe. Therefore, we should regard ourselves as "nature's tools". The Universe doesn't need us, but we need the Universe. That's the deal. Yea, it's like with Putin's Russia: Putin now needs China, but China doesn't need Putin... :)

    • @klemens33331
      @klemens33331 9 лет назад +2

      Yes, these are constructive and progressive trends. The problem is that many young people are taught to embrace materialism, use credit cards etc. and too busy paying their bills than to think of anything else. Capitalists aim to control the masses of philosophically confused (mostly young) people via one string and keep you entertained and bus, so, that you'll stay away from their materialistic aspirations and get it all their way.
      I'm already too old to be taken seriously by most young people, because according to them any person over the age of 70 is mentally senile. Little do they know that many mentally sane elders acquired lots of invaluable wisdom.
      You see, the true culprit of our socio-economic inequality is blatant, sordid greed of materialist and capitalists. They can't get their necks full enough! The more the own, the more they want and they don't care if their compatriots starve to death, yet they want your kids to join the army to defend the loot of the rich.
      Only occasionally we hear of millionaires coming to their senses and decide to give away lots of their excess cash; like the generous, caring Leonardo Julio Farkas, a Chilean businessman and philanthropist, who put's Chile's sordid politicians to shame.

    • @lazlieni
      @lazlieni 8 лет назад +2

      +Joh Drinda If everyone owned businesses we wont have employees. The structure of the world and its economics is not perfect but in most cases it is workable and part of that is based on the fact that we as humans are individuals and we think different and want to be different. It is because of this diversity of mental make-up why some people are comfortable being employees while others are comfortable being criminals and other wont settle for nothing but wealth.

    • @klemens33331
      @klemens33331 8 лет назад

      The Lazlo The workers, who would become owners, are already self-motivated, qualified professionals. Thus, they will enjoy fulfilling their individual interests while sharing them in a bigger context. On their own they wouldn't be able to run (for instance) a laboratory, an auto repair business, a supermarket etc.Thus, as individual employees they would not get far.
      I am almost sure that workers, who turned into business owners, would abandon their criminal ambitions. - Let's face it most criminals became criminals out of poverty; only a small percentage are mentally sick, who will eventually have to learn to "feel comfortable" in a mental asylum or jail!
      Besides, I once worked with a Hungarian boss, called "Lazlo Nemesh"... who offered me a job in his jewelry wholesale. We both would have been even better off if we would have both been owners of the business.

  • @muckvix
    @muckvix 3 года назад +5

    The speaker spent almost the entire talk showing correlation. He then spent a few seconds hand waving on the topic of causation. Very clearly, he did not show any reasonable evidence of causation. And without such evidence, this whole talk is a worthless pseudoscientific embarrassment.

    • @BrianSalamone
      @BrianSalamone 3 года назад

      True. At the last part I was like "Yay he's aware of the possible critics!" but then no rebuttal whatsoever. So dissapointing.

  • @rrrolighed
    @rrrolighed 10 лет назад +4

    Nice to see he put on a brand new shirt for the speach. :D

    • @canadianloon6433
      @canadianloon6433 4 года назад

      He got paid from the rest of the Communist want to be's

  • @ab0032
    @ab0032 11 лет назад +1

    In a capitalist society, which exists nowhere in the world today, even the poorest would be richer than today in the blood sucking socialist societies. I would rather be poor in a free society. The poorest in the freest societies we now have, like Switzerland have over USD 10,000.
    In a capitalist society I would not be poor, as you presume, because I would have work or even my own business. Within days of being let out in the streets with nothing I would have enough to sleep in a cheap hotel.

  • @incognitotorpedo42
    @incognitotorpedo42 6 лет назад +5

    In addition to income inequality, he should look at the effect of cultural homogeneity on how well societies do. Some of the effects he attributes to income inequality may correlate equally well with cultural diversity.

  • @TheOBXMULE
    @TheOBXMULE 10 лет назад +20

    A lot of these graphs wouldn't pass for a middle school project! No citations of the conducted studies, plus half of these graphs use numeric values of "Low" and "High". I appreciate the argument he's making, but to prove your point you also need to prove that your information is believable.

    • @kghor5064
      @kghor5064 6 лет назад +5

      literally says it not even 3 minutes in where all his data is coming from...

    • @datman240
      @datman240 6 лет назад +3

      It would have taken the speaker hours to include what TheOBXMULE suggests and I doubt he was allocated that much time by TED. Besides, this information is, I suspect, available on the internet. Google it!

    • @Xez1919
      @Xez1919 5 лет назад

      You can find these studies online and validate them for yourself

    • @HPxG323
      @HPxG323 5 лет назад +2

      He doesn't understand that correlation doesn't imply causation.

    • @stattin
      @stattin 5 лет назад +2

      He replies to that argument in the end of the video, so maybe just watch the whole video?

  • @ivorycloudofficial
    @ivorycloudofficial 7 лет назад +11

    I'm sorry, how exactly is Israel a poor country?

    • @gurupitka6924
      @gurupitka6924 7 лет назад

      Martin D well, look at their economy. it's nothing compared to US economy.

    • @gurupitka6924
      @gurupitka6924 7 лет назад +1

      Martin D that's why we give them billions XD

    • @ivorycloudofficial
      @ivorycloudofficial 7 лет назад

      ridiculous. What news sources do you watch/read?

    • @ivorycloudofficial
      @ivorycloudofficial 7 лет назад +1

      Blake Rees dubious choice of language...you mean the pharmaceutical business? That's a discussion for another day. Why do they have a healthy economy? Is it because they have "good business initiative", or because they've destroyed any regime that tried to build its own currency and systematically monopolised almost the entire global banking system ?

    • @ivorycloudofficial
      @ivorycloudofficial 7 лет назад

      Blake Rees furthermore, how exactly are your facetious points related to economic inequality and my argument that Israel is one of the richest, not the poorest in the world?

  • @smooa1889
    @smooa1889 3 года назад +1

    nah we gotta abolish capitalism and establish communism take equality seriously

  • @JoEbY-X
    @JoEbY-X 4 года назад +1

    Here we see Wilkinson skillfully tricking his audience with 17 full minutes of the "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" fallacy. All of his cherry-picked data notwithstanding (including his arbitrary and unvalidated "index of health and social problems," and "diagnostic interviews" for mental illness that are "the same" while somehow remaining cross-culturally valid), he presents no evidence whatsoever that his correlations prove causation, except for two feeble offerings that “people know” that chronic social stressors affect our health, and violence stems from people being "sensitive to being looked down on." Seriously?
    Notice how he stutters far more while defending his complete lack of data supporting causality than he does in the remainder of the entire speech? I’m sure he has noble reasons for sharing his ideas, but he is certainly well aware how weak his argument is.

    • @hmt340
      @hmt340 4 года назад

      But he was clear about the fact that correlation does not imply causation. He was honest about it (watch the last two min). However, Richard has several magnificent works about health inquality where you can find the causal pathways of this theory. You can check the following article of his (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9055723/)

    • @sveingeraldhansen7275
      @sveingeraldhansen7275 4 года назад

      So what is wrong ? Give us examples.

  • @mdlittle5466
    @mdlittle5466 11 лет назад +16

    Artificial scarcity...,
    - ...is the prime factor among the majority of current existing and overall unnecessary suffering we see in Our World today caused by economic disparity...
    M.D. - A.D.

    • @wardmcbride8587
      @wardmcbride8587 5 лет назад

      Yes, completely so. Where I grew up, the richer people looked down on the poorer and the poorer were jealous and had a distain towards the more wealthy. I never understood why people just can't get along.

  • @aemanali2882
    @aemanali2882 7 лет назад +8

    Economic inequality not only harms society but also create many crime scenes. According to the statistics criticism is common in rich and poor.

    • @wisepersonsay3142
      @wisepersonsay3142 6 лет назад +1

      Most important: Money education starts at home. Don't spend more than one earns. Save to weather bad times. No credit cards. Be a minimalist. Stop consuming, but producing. You can start growing vegetables even on your table.

    • @nikita34100
      @nikita34100 6 лет назад

      @@wisepersonsay3142 stfu bling out dude. conservation leads t boringness lol

  • @alexiane250
    @alexiane250 12 лет назад +4

    Japan looks sweet to live in

  • @samstiles7053
    @samstiles7053 2 года назад +2

    One thing I noticed about the graphs is that the countries listed are all relatively developed. I wonder how the introduction of more LEDCs into these graphs would impact the correlations?

  • @ab0032
    @ab0032 11 лет назад +2

    Nobody says that there are not people who are needy or in need of other peoples help. The question though is, does the government have to do it? Before Bismarck introduced social systems to better suppress the bottom part of society, as he openly said, we had better and cheaper and fairer systems.
    We should try to get back to private systems that compete with each other, with less waste, less cronyism and less corruption. 90% of the population was organized in mutual aid before gov destroyed it.

  • @johncharlesworth3799
    @johncharlesworth3799 5 лет назад +4

    First-class speaker.

  • @Dudemar0
    @Dudemar0 5 лет назад +7

    Does he control for poverty? Because there will be a strong correlation between the 20% R/P inequality measure and the poverty levels

  • @TennisPlayer-my5ue
    @TennisPlayer-my5ue 6 лет назад +4

    Correlation doesn’t automatically mean causation. I’d love an actual explanation from this guy, or anyone else for that matter, on how exactly wealth inequality leads to these things. You can have wealth equality but everyone is dirt poor - you’re telling me this is beneficial? I laugh.

  • @goonsdoona2979
    @goonsdoona2979 2 года назад +1

    Commie propaganda but okay

  • @777bal
    @777bal 11 лет назад +1

    abOO32....I work with sick people and the poor many times a week. I have also come through a long term illness in the past which took everything from me.Sir, "Wait till you get sick long term".you will NOT BE HAPPY! Plus most people who are poor in America die off sooner.suffer from more mental illness.I am not saying if we had a successful type of anarcho/Syndicalism, or a distributist type Capitalism might work well.(The Mondragon experiment)

  • @Riotboy1
    @Riotboy1 10 лет назад +63

    Capitalism FAILED and I blame the Government for bailing out the Banks instead of helping the needy.

    • @slightlyjamaicanman
      @slightlyjamaicanman 8 лет назад +6

      +Riotboy1 Unfortunate, but the government had to bail out the banks. The alternative was much worse

    • @SRT480
      @SRT480 8 лет назад

      slightlyjamaicanman i would agree if there had been reform, but is now worse.

    • @eugenerider0701
      @eugenerider0701 7 лет назад +5

      Trust me the world runs on this methods, where do you think you get all the necessities from? Without the first capitalists who were willing to take risky and costly projects, where are you now? Nights without bulbs, walking without cars. Do you think these technology just came out of nowhere?

    • @rivenraven1
      @rivenraven1 7 лет назад +5

      Eugene Rider​​​ I'm sick of the argument of the capitalism creates technology. NO Technologies always result from understanding laws of nature and then by engineering them applying them. Capitalism is just a method in which we ensure some people get access to the resources and others do not; look at the world it's clearly indicated in the state of things.
      Capitalism claims scarcity is the reason for the necessity of this economic model that historically requires growth and the destruction of the environment because it's an externality in their narrow monetary thinking.
      We have the technical capacity to create a world of abundance for more than probably 10 billion while not over stressing the environment if we used a rational system that seeks to create abundance and maintain dynamic equilibrium with the environment.
      The intelligent use of our resources could end poverty. And poverty is the root cause of many other problems like crime for example.
      Www.thevenusproject.com

    • @eugenerider0701
      @eugenerider0701 7 лет назад +6

      Sigh, no way you're going to end poverty.
      I'd love to see you do that in the next 100 years or maybe you can use the green tech to prolong your life to 1000 years.
      I was not saying Capitalism creates tech, I said, capitalsim provides methods for tech to produce. And you said it either.
      And green and recyclable fuels and energy are exactly what current industry is heading to.

  • @iwasbutchered
    @iwasbutchered 13 лет назад +12

    If this has taught me anything it's that I have got to get to Japan. Haha.

  • @richfloyd8778
    @richfloyd8778 9 лет назад +7

    He keeps telling everyone how this "data" was collected. Sounds like a car salesman.

    • @TheLivirus
      @TheLivirus 8 лет назад +4

      Rich Floyd He encourages us to explore the data for ourselves to verify the correlations. Did you do this before you decided he's a liar?

    • @Wolcik3000
      @Wolcik3000 7 лет назад +1

      Watch other speakers and how they might say where did they get their data, but never appologies for that - as this would fit rather in a video about the data analyse

    • @wisepersonsay3142
      @wisepersonsay3142 6 лет назад +1

      Data don't reflect emotions and cultural/traditional aspects of each nation. Don't believe in data and statistics. They are great leaders to lies and deceptions. Academics are good with this trick.

    • @dinnerwithfranklin2451
      @dinnerwithfranklin2451 5 лет назад +2

      I imagine this is because talks that show how income inequality effect society tend to be attacked for cherry picking data. So he is, I think, trying to overcome that criticism by being very clear about where his data comes from.

    • @dinnerwithfranklin2451
      @dinnerwithfranklin2451 5 лет назад +3

      "Don't believe in data"??? That is a pretty bizarre opinion!

  • @slutmonke
    @slutmonke 12 лет назад +21

    "Even if he didn't, he used a huge sample size, so it's a safe bet that there is causation at work."
    FALSE. Correlation is not always causation. The correlated things might have a same *third* thing that causes both of *them*. There are many alternative explanations for most of the things he shows are correlated. Maybe the things that cause all the problems is also the thing that causes higher inequality--rather than the inequality itself causing the problems.

  • @jasonfunderberker6955
    @jasonfunderberker6955 2 года назад +1

    Steven Pinker should watch this

    • @matthewhrmich5350
      @matthewhrmich5350 2 года назад

      Why? I don't know much about Pinker, what does he believe?

  • @flacornmallrat
    @flacornmallrat 3 года назад +2

    10:18 Hard cut when Wilkinson is about to say that the countries at the low end of the distribution are all ethnically and culturally homogeneous.

  • @iamanon4u
    @iamanon4u 9 лет назад +5

    Fantastic video. Thank you for sharing.

  • @stephaniewatts1849
    @stephaniewatts1849 7 лет назад +3

    A thousand people with a million dollars to invest in the economy is far better than one person with a billion dollars to invest because the billionaire will hedge his risk by investing 500 million and hoard the rest

    • @wisepersonsay3142
      @wisepersonsay3142 6 лет назад

      In developed economy, investing in shares and securities give tax economization. Loss on share trading offsets one's income. The system itself is fraudulant.

  • @CANmoPants
    @CANmoPants 11 лет назад +2

    If voters at large are incompetent, then it will require a will of character wielding even more power to disrupt the status-quo. Problem is that such power attracts even more rent-seeking.
    Our dilemma is perhaps best illustrated by the "tragedy of the commons". Every corporation is like a fisherman in a public, shared area of the sea, every fisherman has an incentive to fish as fast and as much as he can, because if he doesn't, another fisherman will do it.

  • @NicholasWongCQ
    @NicholasWongCQ 7 лет назад +1

    Maybe it's because there's higher level of trust to begin with that they have more equality, instead of the other way round?

    • @muckvix
      @muckvix 3 года назад

      Of course. And not just trust; many other factors that keep society healthy also contribute to reduced inequality. It's unbelievable that people don't realize that.

  • @jbzrs
    @jbzrs 8 лет назад +74

    Bernie Sanders 2016

    • @CultureShockCty
      @CultureShockCty 8 лет назад +2

      Feeling da bern

    • @jbzrs
      @jbzrs 8 лет назад +3

      DA BERNS.

    • @shakkamannaka6618
      @shakkamannaka6618 8 лет назад +8

      Da Burnt Out

    • @krzysiekkaszanka4365
      @krzysiekkaszanka4365 7 лет назад +4

      Bernie Sanders, the old jewish communist that wants to implement bread lines and free collage, free health care and free everything but forgetting to tell who's going to pay for it.

    • @Alphamangs
      @Alphamangs 7 лет назад +1

      *college
      Sanders' supporters know exactly how it would be paid for. It's not our fault you resort to strawman arguments when you're to lazy/stupid to read about the bullshit you spread.

  • @badpanda84
    @badpanda84 8 лет назад +55

    Economic inequality is the price you pay for capitalism

    • @jbzrs
      @jbzrs 8 лет назад +12

      +badpanda84 Wrong. Norway and Sweden and Scandanavia have wealth distribution that isn't equal - 7 to 1, 6 to 1, 13 to 1.
      But in the USA the average CEO makes 300x that of the average worker.

    • @jbzrs
      @jbzrs 8 лет назад +4

      Ahh, so you're saying mixed economies, where socialist policies take certain things off the table so that people don't take advantage of people, and capitalist policies stimulate economic growth by competition?

    • @anzus762
      @anzus762 8 лет назад +3

      +J Beezers "Norway, Sweden and scandinavia" (Norway and Sweden are parts of Scandinavia - Kingdom of Norway, Sweden and Denmark) are capitalist societies. You argument is invalid.

    • @alexandrefreitas2569
      @alexandrefreitas2569 8 лет назад +8

      No Anzus, the argument is not invalid because his argument was not the Sweden and Scandinavia are not capitalist societies. He was pointing out that those countries have a mixed economy that works to keep income inequality from a minimum. You can have people that earn more earning 7 times the people that earn less, instead of 300 times.

    • @anzus762
      @anzus762 8 лет назад +4

      The 0,1 richest people in Norway have above one hundred times more wealth than the general public, so no, they are far from equal. Still not too bad compared to the US

  • @0Angmar
    @0Angmar 8 лет назад +4

    Why the speaker omitted Singapore from the various charts?

    • @DC-sy5zv
      @DC-sy5zv 8 лет назад +3

      he intentionally censored data that didn't support his narrative

    • @Wolcik3000
      @Wolcik3000 7 лет назад

      I wonder what euqlity they he really had in mind

    • @23Scadu
      @23Scadu 6 лет назад +2

      Presumably because there wasn't any data for Singapore for the statistics on those charts. Different countries measure different things. Just try getting statistics on police shootings in the US, for instance.

    • @karitaskristel91
      @karitaskristel91 6 лет назад

      I disagree. As he stated, only so many papers were done on this subject. So, they took all data available and put it in!

    • @quetiimporta6174
      @quetiimporta6174 5 лет назад +1

      @@DC-sy5zv
      You don't know anything about economics, for example, in Norway the quality of life is much better than in Singapore even when their per capita GDP are very similar (Norway is one of the most egalitarian and statist countries in the world)
      Source: www.google.com/amp/s/thehearttruths.com/2014/04/30/80-of-singaporeans-are-poorer-than-a-cleaner-in-norway/amp/

  • @Brandonhayhew
    @Brandonhayhew 9 лет назад +2

    The Wealthy people donate some million dallor to charity organisation to help combat poverty in their local city.

    • @Ambrose_Heria
      @Ambrose_Heria 6 лет назад

      soyon wandering don’t just give them money give them jobs.

  • @divingbells29
    @divingbells29 8 лет назад +59

    I have to say that this is what Bernie Sanders has been talking about for many years. I'm going to show this to my students!

    • @nthperson
      @nthperson 8 лет назад +2

      There is more to the story. Do a RUclips search on Fred Harrison, a British economist who has written extensively on how to end poverty and misery around the world. He has also produced a series of hard-hitting short documentary films.

    • @banyentertainment
      @banyentertainment 8 лет назад +3

      Sorry to bump so late but you do realise that americans can never be denmark right? You are too diverse racially and culturally. Turns out diversity is not your strenght, who would have thought

    • @LittleBigPoet
      @LittleBigPoet 8 лет назад +10

      Don't show this to your students lol. You want to encourage them to work, to take risks, not to live off of welfare.

    • @divingbells29
      @divingbells29 8 лет назад +1

      Ha! Thanks for the Fred Harrison recommendation. I will check it out.

    • @andyjs2008
      @andyjs2008 7 лет назад +1

      Hey, fellow teacher here, great to hear! How did this go down with your students?

  • @michaelyu4461
    @michaelyu4461 4 года назад +9

    Great video. Knowing the consequences of inequality is the first step to solving it.

    • @dwightstewart5211
      @dwightstewart5211 4 года назад

      Quite a person of many words I see. What are your thoughts on the taxation system that will best solve the problem of inequality without losing the 'incentive' associated with economic efficiency?

    • @GauntLife
      @GauntLife 4 года назад

      @@dwightstewart5211 His thoughts are that there isn't such a thing. Hard work and success is rewarded with money. Rich people are taxed too. Billionaires pay millions in taxes. Sure, their accountants know tricks to pay less taxes, but the common peasant can take advantage of tax breaks too. Why should successful people like Jeff Bezos have to give half his earnings to the government? He's earned his pay. He's created thousands of jobs. He created a company that benefits the world over. So what if he has more money than you. He had a better idea and work ethic than you. If you stifle the reward of commiting to a venture, you don't get the venture. Who's greedier? The rich person or the person who wants the rich person's money without having worked for it?

    • @shahidanaseer-qp1yo
      @shahidanaseer-qp1yo 7 месяцев назад

      This is a great presentation that addresses many of the social and psychological issues that remain largely under-discussed on the topic of economic inequality.

  • @IntuitiveLeap
    @IntuitiveLeap 11 лет назад

    why would you assume that paying a tax necessarily lowers your standard of living? seems mighty short sighted to me (not that i love taxes). did you want to pay hundreds(thousands millions trillions w/e it is) of times as much to design build and maintain the roads you need for your life's pursuits? do the same for your comm infrastructures? you sound like ur coming from a specific ideology's P.O.V., not a fact based one.

  • @Hirnlego999
    @Hirnlego999 11 лет назад

    60 minutes showed from a Japanese car factory. The boss didn't make enormously more than the average worker and he ate food with the rest of the workers.
    In USA drug users are a way to make money, to feed the prison industrial complex, this is why people get put it prison for crap crimes. In many parts of the world
    Lazy? Is that more of that compassionate conservatism? 200.000 people applied for 200 jobs just recently in USA.

  • @anishagnihotri5374
    @anishagnihotri5374 4 года назад +8

    Great Video!
    We're summarizing this video as a part of our research into consequences of Economic Growth in economics, and we analyzed that:
    It was interesting to see how Gross National Income has no impact on life expectancy and other common factors attributed to Economic Development, yet, "income means something very important within our societies, and nothing between them."
    The more inequality of income within a country, the worse the living conditions of the society (for example: Unicef index of child well-being, mental illness, high school drop out rate, etc.).
    Some recommended solutions included: increasing company-employee ownership, promoting more directors from within companies, stopping tax avoidance, ending tax havens, and making tax progressive again.

    • @ronaldreagan-ik6hz
      @ronaldreagan-ik6hz Год назад

      Typic as l leftist view. Larger Government and more taxes is the solution to all problems. What a foolish argument

  • @ShaeMacMillan
    @ShaeMacMillan 9 лет назад +8

    thank you TED. Insightful & powerful

    • @oscarbarraubergua9835
      @oscarbarraubergua9835 6 лет назад

      Hi Shae MacMillan, you can to watch video about Inequality in Income with Berni Sanders, recorded one month ago,
      Regards from Spain,
      Oscar.

  • @kevinwang1709
    @kevinwang1709 4 года назад +5

    We believe it is a wonderful video summarizing the correlation between wealth disparity and negative social effects. We overuse the values for GDP per capita, hence seeing no correlation and ending our analysis. We found it interesting how there is such a strong relationship between income inequality, a factor not usually considered when discussing infant mortality and life expectancy.

  • @RyanGatts
    @RyanGatts 12 лет назад

    He would be a racist if he said that Americans were more unequal or less healthy BECAUSE they are American. He is saying that inequality is not dictated by -- or even related to - nationality. He's saying that inequality breeds unhealthiness. You can make the case that maybe unhealthiness is what causes inequality, because that would make sense and is a fair criticism related to the data and argument provided. But you provide a stupid, myopic, ad hominem attack instead.

  • @yeahchris
    @yeahchris 12 лет назад

    I didn't say anything about the argument about that fallacy in my original comment. I just pointed out that you were asking for data which was already given
    I will say now, however, that I'm pretty sure that you don't understand what that fallacy means
    That fallacy doesn't suggest that correlation is not evidence of causality; correlation *IS* evidence of causality. It's just not necessary proof of it without screening for other variables, etc (All of which was accounted for in the video, btw)