The Spirit Level

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"Accepting this does not involve a huge theoretical leap" (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2011, p.195).

In this quote from The Spirit Level, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett were talking about the notion of accepting that inequality is the common denominator in understanding the enormous variations which exist from one society to another in the level of problems associated with low social status.

This quote expresses my initial reaction when I began reading this book. I thought to myself, "Well, yeah, it seems fairly logical that great disparity in incomes would cause social issues in a society." That's not to say I did not think the idea was a little broad, and I had some questions about the particulars of this seemed correlation. The more I read, the more those particulars came to light.

This book carries with it a certain moral weight and has left me thinking about our society and even my place in it. While, as the text said, I didn't have to make some huge mental shift to accept the "truth" this book presents, the actual reading of it did shift my perspective. Analyzing the graphs and reading the commentary that provides the meaning to and implications of those graphs left me a little despondent. While the positivist side of me kept trying to focus on the line of regression and the facts it presented, the humanitarian, teacher, and feminist inside of me was screaming, "The U.S. has GOT to do someTHING! What is wrong with us?!?"

For me, this book imparts some responsibility as a reader and U.S. citizen, but since that is not exactly the focus of our course or this analysis, I will attempt to take on the role of the research critic and doctoral student. This text also gives responsibility to these roles as well in thinking about the methodology employed in this study and what I glean from it.

(1) What resonates with me/ What I find compelling

• p.76 - I completely agree that our psychological wellbeing has a direct impact on our health. I tend to believe that a key ingredient to overall health is having sound mental health. I have witnessed in several instances where strong feelings of inferiority can cause excessive anxiety and have a truly negative impact on an individual's life.
• p.115 - "We learn best in stimulating environments when we feel sure we can succeed. When we feel threatened, helpless and stressed, our bodies are flooded by the hormone cortisol which inhibits our thinking and memory." As a teacher, I called this amygdala hijacking. The amygdala is the part of our brain responsible for fear responses and pleasure. Basically, when an individual feels threatened in a learning environment by any stimuli (bullying, comparing his/her clothes or backpack to others, not being able to afford the upcoming field trip, etc.), he or she cannot process anything other than keeping him/herself safe from the threatening stimuli. Feelings of inequality are very difficult on children (and many adults as well), and anyone who has worked in an educational environment has most likely seen its effects.
• p.175 - The same data sets (from the UN and the U.S. Census Bureau) were used throughout this study. They were selected for use prior to any analyses and were taken as no "ifs and buts." This is a very positivist way to view the data, and I find it sound.

(2) Where I Raised my Brow in Question

• At first, I was thinking like Saunders; every time, I looked at a graph, I thought that the U.S. seemed to be so far out on its own. I really wondered about this. I wondered if this book was written with too much of a political agenda and so the data was somewhat skewed to "drive home" a point or be overly influential.

(3) Lasting Impressions

• After reading Noble's article, I tend to take the data and implications in this book seriously. The comparison Noble used of the Himalayan Mountain Range and the U.S. included as part of the data set made sense to me. Each country is separate in and of itself, therefore the U.S. cannot just be excluded from the data on terms of it so heavily affecting the line. U.S. facts and just that - the U.S's facts. Also, as a lifelong U.S. citizen, I can justify in my mind how the U.S. could be the metaphorical 29,000 foot mountain that skewed the data. We are a country whose policies undeniably have caused great inequality for a number of reasons. 
• Also, in both the actual book and Noble's article, it is mentioned several times that no one disputes that "other factors" are at play when thinking about social problems, but there is certainly a significant correlation between inequality and the Index of health and social problems put forth by Wilkinson and Pickett.

Overall, I leave The Spirit Level wondering less about the manipulation of regression lines that Saunders suggested, and more reflecting on where I fit into all of this - this unequal society. I am left to reflect on the opportunities I've been provided throughout my life, the health I enjoy, and the pursuit of bettering myself, and my own 2-person familial unit's financial situation. It leaves me questioning the beliefs I've been imparted about wealth obtainment and thinking "at what costs do my comforts come?".  Again, I go back to the paradigms....the positivist in me has respect for the methodology used in this study, and based on fairly convincing evidence, I accept it as "truth," even if not whole truth; the "bleeding heart" human inside of me now feels compelled to do something about it.

References

Noble, H. (2010). The spirit level revisited: Regression lines, correlation, outliers, and multivariate analysis.

Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2011). The spirit level: Why greater equality makes societies stronger (Pbk ed.). New York: Bloomsbury Press.