How economic inequality harms societies | Richard Wilkinson

Translator: Francisco Caamano Reviewer: Xusto Rodriguez

You all know the truth of what I'm going to say.

Xa saben o que lles vou dicir.

I think the intuition that inequality is divisive and socially corrosive

Creo que a idea de que a desigualdade destrúe a sociedade

has been around since before the French Revolution.

é mesmo previa á Revolución Francesa

What's changed

O que cambiou foi que

is we now can look at the evidence,

hoxe temos evidencias,

we can compare societies, more and less equal societies,

podemos comparar sociedades distintas

and see what inequality does.

e observar o que fai a desigualdade.

I'm going to take you through that data

Voulles mostrar esa información

and then explain why

e logo explicareilles por que

the links I'm going to be showing you exist.

existen esas asociacións.

But first, see what a miserable lot we are.

Pero primeiro, vexamos como somos.

(Laughter)

(Risas)

I want to start though

Quero comezar

with a paradox.

cun paradoxo:

This shows you life expectancy

esta figura mostra a esperanza de vida

against gross national income --

fronte ao Produto Interior Bruto,

how rich countries are on average.

a riqueza dos países.

And you see the countries on the right,

Os países situados á dereita

like Norway and the USA,

como Noruega e EEUU

are twice as rich as Israel, Greece, Portugal on the left.

son o dobre de ricos ca Israel, Grecia, Portugal

And it makes no difference to their life expectancy at all.

E isto non afecta á súa esperanza de vida

There's no suggestion of a relationship there.

Non hai nada que suxira correlación.

But if we look within our societies,

Pero se ollamos dentro da sociedade,

there are extraordinary social gradients in health

existen múltiples gradientes de saúde

running right across society.

atravesando a sociedade.

This, again, is life expectancy.

De novo aparece a esperanza de vida.

These are small areas of England and Wales --

Estas son pequenas rexións do Reino Unido

the poorest on the right, the richest on the left.

--as pobres á dereita, ricas á esquerda--

A lot of difference between the poor and the rest of us.

Hai gran diferenza entre elas.

Even the people just below the top

Mesmo as persoas que viven na segunda

have less good health

teñen peor saúde

than the people at the top.

que as que viven na rexión máis rica.

So income means something very important

Por tanto os ingresos son importantes

within our societies,

dentro dunha sociedade

and nothing between them.

e nada entre sociedades.

The explanation of that paradox

A explicación deste paradoxo

is that, within our societies,

é que dentro dunha sociedade

we're looking at relative income

somos conscientes da nosa posición,

or social position, social status --

do noso estatus social,

where we are in relation to each other

ao relacionarnos uns con outros,

and the size of the gaps between us.

e somos conscientes do tamaño da fenda.

And as soon as you've got that idea,

E unha vez entendida esta idea

you should immediately wonder:

inmediatamente deberiamos preguntarnos:

what happens if we widen the differences,

Que sucede se ampliamos esas diferenzas,

or compress them,

ou se as eliminamos,

make the income differences bigger or smaller?

reducindo ou incrementando as diferenzas?

And that's what I'm going to show you.

Iso é o que quero mostrarlles.

I'm not using any hypothetical data.

Non utilizamos información inventada.

I'm taking data from the U.N. --

Utilizamos os datos da ONU,

it's the same as the World Bank has --

os mesmos que ten o Banco Mundial,

on the scale of income differences

da escala de diferenzas en ingresos

in these rich developed market democracies.

nos mercados democráticos ricos.

The measure we've used,

A medida que utilizamos,

because it's easy to understand and you can download it,

por ser sinxela e accesible,

is how much richer the top 20 percent

é canto máis rico é o 20% máis rico

than the bottom 20 percent in each country.

fronte ao 20% máis pobre de cada país.

And you see in the more equal countries on the left --

Os países máis equitativos á esquerda:

Japan, Finland, Norway, Sweden --

o 20% máis rico son 3-4 veces máis ricos

the top 20 percent are about three and a half, four times as rich

--Xapón, Finlandia, Noruega, Suecia--

as the bottom 20 percent.

que o 20% menos rico

But on the more unequal end --

Pero no extremo máis desigual

U.K., Portugal, USA, Singapore --

--Reino Unido, EEUU e Singapur--

the differences are twice as big.

as diferenzas son o dobre de grandes.

On that measure, we are twice as unequal

Nesta medida, somos o dobre de desiguais

as some of the other successful market democracies.

que outros mercados democráticos exitosos.

Now I'm going to show you what that does to our societies.

Agora, voulles mostrar o efecto.

We collected data on problems with social gradients,

Recompilamos información sobre

problemas con gradiente social;

the kind of problems that are more common

o tipo de problemas máis comúns

at the bottom of the social ladder.

nas clases sociais máis baixas.

Internationally comparable data on life expectancy,

Información sobre esperanza de vida,

on kids' maths and literacy scores,

notas dos nenos en mates, alfabetización,

on infant mortality rates, homicide rates,

mortalidade infantil, homicidios,

proportion of the population in prison, teenage birthrates,

poboación en prisión,

embarazos adolescentes,

levels of trust,

os niveis de confianza entre os cidadáns,

obesity, mental illness --

a obesidade, a enfermidade mental;

which in standard diagnostic classification

que na clasificación estándar

includes drug and alcohol addiction --

inclúe dependencia de drogas e alcohol

and social mobility.

e datos de ascenso social.

We put them all in one index.

Creamos un índice único

They're all weighted equally.

Todo os datos tiña igual peso no índice

Where a country is is a sort of average score on these things.

And there, you see it

E podemos observar

in relation to the measure of inequality I've just shown you,

en relación á medida de desigualdade

which I shall use over and over again in the data.

The more unequal countries

que aos países máis desiguais

are doing worse

vailles peor

on all these kinds of social problems.

neste tipo de problemas sociais.

It's an extraordinarily close correlation.

Existe una correlación elevadísima.

But if you look at that same index

Pero se miramos o mesmo índice

of health and social problems

de problemas sociais e de saúde

in relation to GNP per capita,

o produto nacional bruto,

gross national income,

non hai nada,

there's nothing there,

non hai correlación.

no correlation anymore.

en relación ao PIB per cápita.

We were a little bit worried

Estabamos un poco preocupados

that people might think

de que se pensara que

we'd been choosing problems to suit our argument

elixiramos os problemas para que casara,

and just manufactured this evidence,

que amañaramos a evidencia,

so we also did a paper in the British Medical Journal

así que tamén publicamos no BMJ

on the UNICEF index of child well-being.

utilizando o criterio da UNICEF.

It has 40 different components

Este criterio ten 40 compoñentes distintos

put together by other people.

definidos por outras persoas.

It contains whether kids can talk to their parents,

Mide se os nenos conversan con seus pais,

whether they have books at home,

se teñen libros na casa,

what immunization rates are like, whether there's bullying at school.

a taxa de inmunización, o acoso escolar.

Everything goes into it.

Todo está incluído.

Here it is in relation to that same measure of inequality.

Aquí está a relación

Kids do worse in the more unequal societies.

Os nenos están peor en sociedades máis desiguais

Highly significant relationship.

E a relación é significativa.

But once again,

Pero unha vez máis,

if you look at that measure of child well-being,

se observamos o benestar infantil

in relation to national income per person,

en relación ao ingreso por persoa ano,

there's no relationship,

non hai relación.

no suggestion of a relationship.

Nada de nada.

What all the data I've shown you so far says

O que mostra a información

is the same thing.

é o mesmo.

The average well-being of our societies

O benestar das nosas sociedades

is not dependent any longer

xa non depende

on national income and economic growth.

do PIB ou do crecemento económico.

That's very important in poorer countries,

Iso é moi importante nos países pobres,

but not in the rich developed world.

pero non no mundo desenvolvido.

But the differences between us

Sen embargo, as diferenzas entre nós,

and where we are in relation to each other

a nosa posición relativa

now matter very much.

importan moitísimo.

I'm going to show you some of the separate bits of our index.

Voulles mostrar as partes do noso índice.

Here, for instance, is trust.

Aquí, por exemplo, está a confianza.

It's simply the proportion of the population

É simplemente a porcentaxe da poboación

who agree most people can be trusted.

que concorda que se pode confiar na xente

It comes from the World Values Survey.

Este dato procede das enquisas de WVS.

You see, at the more unequal end,

Nos países con maior desigualdade,

it's about 15 percent of the population

ao redor do 15% da poboación

who feel they can trust others.

sente que pode confiar nos demais.

But in the more equal societies,

Pero en sociedades máis igualitarias,

it rises to 60 or 65 percent.

esta porcentaxe sobe ata o 60% ou 65%.

And if you look at measures of involvement in community life

E se miramos a participación social

or social capital,

ou capital social,

very similar relationships

hai relacións moi semellantes,

closely related to inequality.

gran correlación coa desigualdade.

I may say, we did all this work twice.

Fixemos estas análises 2 veces,

We did it first on these rich, developed countries,

primeiro nos países ricos e desenvolvidos,

and then as a separate test bed,

e logo como un banco de probas,

we repeated it all on the 50 American states --

repetímola nos 50 estados dos EEUU;

asking just the same question:

facéndonos a mesma pregunta:

do the more unequal states

Vailles peor aos estados máis desiguais

do worse on all these kinds of measures?

en todos estes tipos de medidas?

So here is trust from a general social survey of the federal government

Aquí vese a confianza

related to inequality.

relacionada coa desigualdade.

Very similar scatter

Un diagrama moi parecido

over a similar range of levels of trust.

por riba de niveis similares de confianza.

Same thing is going on.

Sucede o mesmo.

Basically we found

Básicamente encontramos

that almost anything that's related to trust internationally

que casi calquera todo

is related to trust amongst the 50 states

se relaciona coa confianza nos 50 estados

in that separate test bed.

nese banco de probas.

We're not just talking about a fluke.

Non estamos falando de mera casualidade.

This is mental illness.

Isto son enfermidades mentais.

WHO put together figures

A OMS confecciona índices

using the same diagnostic interviews

utilizando as mesmas entrevistas

on random samples of the population

con mostras aleatorias da poboación

to allow us to compare rates of mental illness

que permiten comparar a enfermidade mental

in each society.

en cada sociedade.

This is the percent of the population

Esta é a porcentaxe da poboación

with any mental illness in the preceding year.

con enfermidade mental no último ano.

And it goes from about eight percent

E varía desde un 8%

up to three times that --

ata 3 veces esa porcentaxe;

whole societies

con 5 veces máis enfermidade mental,

with three times the level of mental illness of others.

sociedades enteiras.

And again, closely related to inequality.

E de novo, relacionado coa desigualdade.

This is violence.

Isto é a violencia.

These red dots are American states,

Eses puntos vermellos son estados de EEUU,

and the blue triangles are Canadian provinces.

os triángulos azuis, provincias de Canadá.

But look at the scale of the differences.

Pero miren a escala de diferenzas.

It goes from 15 homicides per million

Varía desde 15 homicidios por millón

up to 150.

ata 150.

This is the proportion of the population in prison.

Esta é a porcentaxe de presos.

There's a about a tenfold difference there,

Aquí hai una diferenza dez veces maior,

log scale up the side.

rexistrada na escala deste lado.

But it goes from about 40 to 400

Pero aumenta de 40 a 400

people in prison.

persoas en prisión.

That relationship

A relación

is not mainly driven by more crime.

non é impulsada por máis crimes.

In some places, that's part of it.

Nalgúns casos, pode ser debido a isto

But most of it is about more punitive sentencing,

pero na maioría dos casos,

harsher sentencing.

son penas máis duras.

And the more unequal societies

E as sociedades máis desiguais

are more likely also to retain the death penalty.

son tamén as que manteñen a pena de morte.

Here we have children dropping out of high school.

Os nenos que abandoan a secundaria.

Novamente, grandes diferenzas.

Again, quite big differences.

Extraordinarily damaging,

Extraordinariamente daniñas,

if you're talking about using the talents of the population.

se atendemos a maximizar o talento.

This is social mobility.

A mobilidade social.

It's actually a measure of mobility

Trátase dunha medida de mobilidade social

based on income.

baseada nos ingresos.

Basically, it's asking:

Fundamentalmente é como preguntar:

do rich fathers have rich sons

Os pais ricos teñen fillos ricos

and poor fathers have poor sons,

e os pais pobres teñen fillos pobres

or is there no relationship between the two?

ou quizais non hai ningunha relación?

And at the more unequal end,

No extremo máis desigual,

fathers' income is much more important --

o ingreso do pai é moito máis importante,

in the U.K., USA.

no Reino Unido, en Estados Unidos...

And in Scandinavian countries,

E nos países escandinavos

fathers' income is much less important.

o ingreso do pai é moito menos importante.

There's more social mobility.

Hai máis mobilidade social.

And as we like to say --

Temos moitos americanos no público,

and I know there are a lot of Americans in the audience here --

if Americans want to live the American dream,

se queren vivir "o soño americano"

they should go to Denmark.

deberían mudarse a Dinamarca

(Laughter)

(Risas)

(Applause)

(Aplausos)

I've shown you just a few things in italics here.

Mostreilles algunhas cousas.

I could have shown a number of other problems.

Podería ensinarlles outras.

They're all problems that tend to be more common

Todos problemas moito máis frecuentes

at the bottom of the social gradient.

na parte inferior da pendente social.

But there are endless problems with social gradients

Hai moitos

that are worse in more unequal countries --

que son peores nos países máis desiguais,

not just a little bit worse,

non só un pouco peores

but anything from twice as common to 10 times as common.

senón moito máis frecuentes.

Think of the expense,

Pensen no gasto,

the human cost of that.

no custo humano diso.

I want to go back though to this graph that I showed you earlier

Quero volver sobre o gráfico anterior

where we put it all together

onde mostramos a información

to make two points.

para demostrar 2 cousas.

One is that, in graph after graph,

Unha é que, gráfico tras gráfico,

we find the countries that do worse,

descubrimos que os países aos que lles vai peor,

whatever the outcome,

independentemente dos seus ingresos,

seem to be the more unequal ones,

parecen ser os máis desiguais,

and the ones that do well

e aos que lles vai ben

seem to be the Nordic countries and Japan.

soen ser países nórdicos e Xapón.

So what we're looking at

Entón o que observamos

is general social disfunction related to inequality.

é a disfunción social xeral relacionada coa desigualdade.

It's not just one or two things that go wrong,

E non só van mal unha ou dúas cousas,

it's most things.

son a maioría.

The other really important point I want to make on this graph

A outra cousa importante que quero mostrarlles neste gráfico

is that, if you look at the bottom,

é que, se se mira a parte inferior,

Sweden and Japan,

Suecia e Xapón,

they're very different countries in all sorts of ways.

son países moi distintos.

The position of women,

O papel da muller,

how closely they keep to the nuclear family,

a súa proximidade ao núcleo familiar,

are on opposite ends of the poles

están nos polos opostos,

in terms of the rich developed world.

considerando o mundo rico e desenvolvido.

But another really important difference

Pero a outra diferenza moi importante

is how they get their greater equality.

é como logran a igualdade.

Sweden has huge differences in earnings,

Suecia ten gran diferenza nos ingresos,

and it narrows the gap through taxation,

e reduce esa fenda a través de impostos,

general welfare state,

asistencia social xeral,

generous benefits and so on.

grandes beneficios sociais e demais.

Japan is rather different though.

Sen embargo Xapón é un pouco diferente.

It starts off with much smaller differences in earnings before tax.

Ten diferenzas de ingresos moito menores antes de impostos.

It has lower taxes.

Pero ten impostos máis baixos.

It has a smaller welfare state.

Ten unha menor asistencia social.

And in our analysis of the American states,

E na nosa análise en EEUU,

we find rather the same contrast.

descubrimos o mesmo contraste.

There are some states that do well through redistribution,

Algúns estados redistribuén máis,

some states that do well

e outros estados teñen éxito

because they have smaller income differences before tax.

porque teñen menor diferenza de ingresos

antes de impostos.

So we conclude

Entón concluímos

that it doesn't much matter how you get your greater equality,

que non importa cómo se chega á igualdade,

as long as you get there somehow.

sempre e cando se chegue dalgún xeito.

I am not talking about perfect equality,

Non estou falando da igualdade perfecta.

I'm talking about what exists in rich developed market democracies.

Falo da que existe en mercados ricos.

Another really surprising part of this picture

Outro aspecto sorprendente desta imaxe

is that it's not just the poor

é que non son só os pobres

who are affected by inequality.

os afectados pola desigualdade.

There seems to be some truth in John Donne's

Hai algo de certo na frase de John Donne

"No man is an island."

"Ningún home é unha illa".

And in a number of studies, it's possible to compare

E nun número de estudos é posible comparar

how people do in more and less equal countries

como lle vai á xente en países máis ou menos desiguais

at each level in the social hierarchy.

en cada nivel da xerarquía social.

This is just one example.

Este é só un exemplo:

A taxa de mortalidade infantil.

It's infant mortality.

Some Swedes very kindly classified a lot of their infant deaths

Os suecos clasificaban a mortalidade infantil

according to the British register of general socioeconomic classification.

segundo o rexistro británico da clasificación socioeconómica xeral.

And so it's anachronistically

Entón anacronicamente

a classification by fathers' occupations,

clasifica segundo a ocupación dos pais,

so single parents go on their own.

But then where it says "low social class,"

A "clase social baixa"

that's unskilled manual occupations.

refierese ao traballo manual,

It goes through towards the skilled manual occupations in the middle,

Logo está o traballo manual especializado

then the junior non-manual,

logo o traballo xerárquico non manual,

going up high to the professional occupations --

ata o traballo profesional:

doctors, lawyers,

doutores, avogados,

directors of larger companies.

directores en grandes empresas.

You see there that Sweden does better than Britain

A Suecia vaille mellor ca ao Reino Unido

all the way across the social hierarchy.

en tódalas escalas sociais.

As diferenzas maiores están no máis baixo da sociedade.

The biggest differences are at the bottom of society.

But even at the top,

Pero mesmo no máis alto,

there seems to be a small benefit

parece haber un pequeno beneficio

to being in a more equal society.

por pertencer a unha sociedade

con maior igualdade.

We show that on about five different sets of data

Demostrámolo con 5 conxuntos de datos

covering educational outcomes

que cobren resultados educativos

and health in the United States and internationally.

e de saúde nos EEUU e mundialmente.

And that seems to be the general picture --

E a imaxe xeral mostra

that greater equality makes most difference at the bottom,

que a maior igualdade provoca maior diferenza abaixo

but has some benefits even at the top.

pero tamén, ten beneficios arriba.

But I should say a few words about what's going on.

Quero dicirlles algo.

I think I'm looking and talking

Sinto que estou observando e falando

about the psychosocial effects of inequality.

sobre os efectos psicosociais.

More to do with feelings of superiority and inferiority,

Que teñen máis que ver con sentimentos de superioridade ou inferioridade,

of being valued and devalued,

con sentirse ou non valorado,

respected and disrespected.

respetado ou non respetado.

And of course, those feelings

E por suposto, estas emocións

of the status competition that comes out of that

da competencia de status

drives the consumerism in our society.

conducen ao consumismo na nosa sociedade.

It also leads to status insecurity.

Tamén leva a un estado de inseguridade.

We worry more about how we're judged and seen by others,

Preocupanos máis como nos xulgan,

whether we're regarded as attractive, clever,

se somos atractivos, intelixentes,

all that kind of thing.

e ese tipo de cousas.

The social-evaluative judgments increase,

Aumenta o prexuízo da avaliación social,

the fear of those social-evaluative judgments.

o medo a eses prexuízos.

Interestingly,

Curiosamente,

some parallel work going on in social psychology:

hai estudos en psicoloxía social:

some people reviewed 208 different studies

Alguén revisou 208 estudos diferentes

in which volunteers had been invited

nos que se invitou a voluntarios

into a psychological laboratory

a un laboratorio psicosocial

and had their stress hormones,

onde lles mediron as hormonas do estrés

their responses to doing stressful tasks, measured.

And in the review,

E nesta revisión

what they were interested in seeing

o que lles interesaba observar

is what kind of stresses

era que tipos de estrés

most reliably raise levels of cortisol,

soben os niveis de cortisol.

the central stress hormone.

a hormona do estrés principal.

And the conclusion was

E concluíron

it was tasks that included social-evaluative threat --

que as tarefas que implican avaliación;

threats to self-esteem or social status

ameazas á autoestima ou ao status social

in which others can negatively judge your performance.

nas que outros nos poderían xulgar.

Those kind of stresses

Eses tipos de estrés

have a very particular effect

teñen un efecto moi característico

on the physiology of stress.

na fisioloxía do estrés.

Now we have been criticized.

Ténsenos criticado.

Of course, there are people who dislike this stuff

Hai persoas ás que isto non lles gusta

and people who find it very surprising.

e persoas a quen lles sorprende.

I should tell you though

Pero debo dicirlles

that when people criticize us for picking and choosing data,

we never pick and choose data.

xamais eliximos nin filtramos información.

We have an absolute rule

Temos unha norma clara,

that if our data source has data for one of the countries we're looking at,

todo dato válido, fiable

it goes into the analysis.

é incluído na análise.

Our data source decides

É a nosa fonte de información a que decide

whether it's reliable data,

se esa información é fiable ou non,

we don't.

non nós.

Otherwise that would introduce bias.

No caso contrario seriamos parciais.

What about other countries?

Que ocorre cos outros países?

There are 200 studies

Hai 200 estudos

of health in relation to income and equality

de saúde en relación con ingresos e desigualdade

in the academic peer-reviewed journals.

en publicacións revisadas por pares.

This isn't confined to these countries here,

Isto non está confinado só a estes países

hiding a very simple demonstration.

ocultando unha demostración moi simple.

The same countries,

Os mesmos países,

the same measure of inequality,

o mesmo índice de desigualdade,

one problem after another.

problema tras problema.

Why don't we control for other factors?

Por que non controlamos outros factores?

Well we've shown you that GNP per capita

Porque demostramos que o PIB per cápita

doesn't make any difference.

non é unha variable confusora.

And of course, others using more sophisticated methods in the literature

Outros utilizando outros métodos

have controlled for poverty and education

mediron a pobreza e a educación

and so on.

etcétera.

What about causality?

Que pasa coa causalidade?

Correlation in itself doesn't prove causality.

A correlación non é causalidade

We spend a good bit of time.

Pasou un longo tempo.

And indeed, people know the causal links quite well

Sabemos do nexo causal

in some of these outcomes.

nalgúns destes resultados.

The big change in our understanding

O gran cambio na nosa comprensión

of drivers of chronic health

das causas da saúde crónica

in the rich developed world

no mundo densenvolvido e rico

is how important chronic stress from social sources

é a importancia do estrés crónico

is affecting the immune system,

no sistema inmune,

the cardiovascular system.

ou ao sistema cardiovascular.

Or for instance, the reason why violence

Por exemplo, a razón de que a violencia

becomes more common in more unequal societies

exista máis en sociedades desiguais

is because people are sensitive to being looked down on.

é debido á maior probabilidade

de que as persoas sexan despreciadas.

I should say that to deal with this,

Diría que para lidar con isto,

we've got to deal with the post-tax things

debemos lidar cos ingresos tanto antes

and the pre-tax things.

como despois de impostos.

We've got to constrain income,

Debemos restrinxir os ingresos,

the bonus culture incomes at the top.

a cultura das primas, dos bonos

I think we must make our bosses accountable to their employees

Debemos responsabilizar aos nosos xefes

dos seus empregados

in any way we can.

de calquera xeito que se poida.

I think the take-home message though

E creo que a mensaxe

debe ser que podemos

is that we can improve the real quality of human life

mellorar a calidade da vida humana

by reducing the differences in incomes between us.

reducindo as diferenzas entre nós.

Suddenly we have a handle

De pronto poderíase manexar

on the psychosocial well-being of whole societies,

o benestar da sociedade enteira,

and that's exciting.

e iso é excitante!

Thank you.

Grazas.

(Applause)

(Aplausos)