This is an insight written by Stella Hudson on the recent Bahá’í Chair for World Peace Symposium on “Inequalities and the Increased Risk of Political Violence” co-sponsored by the Critical Race Initiative and the Department of African American Studies on October 12, 2021.
What does class inequality have to do with health? According to Professor Kate Pickett, a lot. Dr. Pickett is an epidemiologist, but in her talk “How more equal societies reduce stress, restore sanity, and improve everyone’s wellbeing” she discusses exactly how inequality is bad for public health and well-being and came armed with the statistics to prove it.
Human beings are social creatures. We value the people around us and our connections to them. We define ourselves by the groups we belong to and those we do not. The quality of our social environment plays a large role in our well-being. Yet at the same time, we are capable of a huge range of behaviors towards others, from aggressive to supportive to kind. As individuals, we can switch between these behaviors quickly, and this capacity for variance is also visible at a societal level. Societies as whole groups vary in their level of hierarchy, violence, egalitarianism, and cooperation, and like individual people, societies are also capable of change over time.
Often we focus on this possibility for change in the negative direction. The collapse of empires, civil wars, famine, and devastation morbidly capture and fascinate minds everywhere from ancient history to current events. Despite this, it is the very fact that societies can change that also provides hope for a more equal world.
Currently, financial inequality is rampant. Some schools of thought posit that inequality is necessary, or at least inevitable, but the data points in another direction. Massive inequality inhibits economic growth, and higher levels of inequality are correlated with higher levels of many kinds of social and health problems. In more unequal countries, there are higher homicide rates, higher status anxiety, and higher rates of violence. The levels of imprisonment are also higher, not just because of more crime, but because the systems are harsher and more punitive.
In contrast, more equal societies have more social mobility, lower crime and violence rates, and more trust in the general populace. Aspects like these lead more equal societies to be more likely to comply with green international standards and are correlated with more biodiversity. The recent pandemic has provided another example of ways that equality can improve health. More equal societies have more trust, which in turn aids them in having maximum compliance with covid regulations and vaccination opportunities.
We often tend to think of a move towards equality as a move towards the center, however, when viewed from a public health perspective, it is an upward trend. More equality is beneficial for everyone in a society, not only those at the bottom. Hierarchies based on wealth, race, class, gender, or any other number of things create barriers, anxieties, and stress. They generate environments where competition, violence, and distrust thrive. Beyond the idea that these things are morally wrong, they also elevate the levels of sickness, pain, and crime for everyone in an unequal society.
We have seen the income inequality in America skyrocket in recent decades. However, if it can go up, that means it can also come down. Change is possible and is a worthy goal for the betterment of our lives. Inequality is not motivational, nor is it inescapable. Differences, nuances, and innovations are an inherent part of the human experience, inequality doesn’t have to be.
About the Author:
Stella Hudson is a Graduate Assistant with the Baha’i Chair for World Peace. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2021 with a B.A. in English. She is attending the University of Maryland and pursuing a Master’s of Library and Information Science.