Added: Oct 24, 2011
From: TEDtalksDirector
Duration: 16:55
http://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 http://www.ted.com/translate.
Channel: People
Rating: 4.8123784' max='5' min='1' numRaters='3603' rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#overall ( ratings) Views: 199702 Comments: 1950
UmTheMuse Says:
Apr 10, 2013 - Don't forget that things like textbooks are much more expensive than they could be because the public school has no choice but to buy from near monopolies. Identical college textbooks cost about three times as much in the US as they do in Bangladesh. A private school system could easily break up these monopolies. The problem with private schools is the gross inequality of earnings among parents. One more way inequality hurts us.
Romeiser Gay Says:
Apr 10, 2013 - Corruption!
Rachel Doelman Says:
Apr 10, 2013 - Where has Richard Wilkinson gone??
egettman nancie Says:
Apr 11, 2013 - So true. :)
lianggyy15 Says:
Apr 11, 2013 - Yes, I noticed that as well! I was wondering why Singapore wasn't included for some of the graphs. Is there any way we can get hold of the study to find out why Singapore wasn't included in some parts? In the first graph, Singapore was the MOST unequal country. Yet in the other graphs, the data was left out. I think we need to dig deeper to find out what happened to the most significant data point right?
moneymike21000 Says:
Apr 15, 2013 - i think he's way over simplifying his argument by not exploring why income inequality causes these issues. becaues by the data alone some of these claims are outrageous. by his logic if the millionaires leave the country then mental illness rates would drop. and can someone tell me how one mesaures 'trust' objectively? income inequality is just the natural progression of a capitalist society because of compounding interest (money makes money). income inequality is a syptom, not a problem.
ebrosius hae Says:
Apr 15, 2013 - So inspiring. :)
unvergebeneid Says:
Apr 15, 2013 - The idea of a social market economy is to counteract the natural progression of capitalism. How do you explain the differences between all these countries? They are all capitalist countries. This was a 15-minute peek into a huge body of research. If you found it too brief, why don't you read up?
unvergebeneid Says:
Apr 15, 2013 - He said they included countries whenever data was available. This probably means that when they didn't include a country, the data was not available.
esteiper cammy Says:
Apr 16, 2013 - Economic.
Sebastian Kracht Says:
Apr 18, 2013 - "If Americans want to live the American dream. They should go to Denmark" Best. Quote. EVER :D
chale vato Says:
Apr 20, 2013 - It is not all the case that, "by his logic if the millionaires leave the country then mental illness rates would drop" I think it's more like, if the millionaires within a country would stop offshore tax evasion, give more ownership and provide more equal distribution within their companies--all of which increases the "psychosocial stress" and anxiety so characteristic, for example, in the American capitalist system, then yes, there would less mental illness.
Viswa Ghosh Says:
Apr 22, 2013 - Great research! I hope the American Congress, the IMF and the World Bank fools spend time watching this video!
mama aroi Says:
Apr 28, 2013 - Brilliant Research!!!
touvang7 Says:
Apr 29, 2013 - so why does japan have low income inequality? did they just choose to have it like that?
touvang7 Says:
Apr 29, 2013 - Why isnt China in the graphs?
rfavro Says:
Apr 29, 2013 - Richard Wikinson's studies as in his book The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger, are focused on the OECD countries. China is not in the OECD.
rustyscrapper Says:
May 1, 2013 - I respect this guy for not picking sides wether or not redistribution and solalism works, and only objectively states the facts. The key here is not income equality. "Wealth" is more then just fiat dollars per hour, and means different things to different people. OPPORTUNITY and economic ENTRY equality is what needs to be equal. Meaning anyone who WANTS to work hard to become wealthy has a chance to use whatever skills they have to do so, without monoplies, legislation, favoritism
Souji Seta Says:
May 7, 2013 - Restriction of information from the Government? That is probably most likely.
Daniel Brandão Says:
May 8, 2013 - Probably the same reason why (among others) their economy is stagnated since 90s: their happiness do not depends on getting rich.
t3mpl3guardian Says:
May 9, 2013 - with over a billion people, getting relevant data on the lower classes would likely be near impossible.
owenallford Says:
May 19, 2013 - I wonder how all these factors compare with the price of beer?
UmTheMuse Says:
Apr 10, 2013 - It depends on the economies of scale. If you doubled the number of schools (and therefore the costs), would you get more or less than double the education? If you do, then why aren't you doing it? Chances are, it's just too expensive. That would be a point in favor of private schools. It also depends on the efficiency gains due to innovation. It's almost impossible to fire bad teachers in the US, but you can't make up the difference through sheer number of teachers at cheaper prices.