[pf] inequality minimised, for a positive future: better health, more gr

**  I recommend:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0003/S00008.htm
  It has:

 Keith Rankin's Thursday Column, 2 March 2000, 9:16 am
The Health Costs of Inequality

 ... After trawling through much of the world's public health literature
and health statistics, Wilkinson (a British economic historian) concluded
that life expectancy and other health outcomes show a strong and direct
functional relationship with internal (but not international) relative
poverty. Neither diet, absolute income, nor the quality of medical services
have much impact on death rates. Where poor diets or bad habits (eg
smoking) could be shown to play some role in inducing premature death,
there were strong indications that it was the stresses of relative poverty
that played a major role in inducing people to overeat, to smoke, or to
otherwise take foolish risks with their lives.

 Societies with good longevity have (i) a relatively equal income
distribution, and (ii) a high degree of social cohesion; "social capital"
if you will. A society that wishes to have a happy, healthy and prosperous
population is a society that makes the reduction of income inequality its
number one economic policy objective.

 Not only would a society that had the political will to distribute income
equitably have fewer social or medical problems. Such a society would also
have faster economic growth. Wilkinson cites a number of studies that
reveal much more than a correlation between equity and growth; they reveal
that more equity causes more growth.

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sent on by David.
(David MacClement) davd@ihug.co.nz 
www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/3142/Pg1-AD11.html
 or better: http://www.emucities.com.au/member/davd/
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