The broken ladder : how inequality affects the way we think, live, and die / Keith Payne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Payne, Keith (Social scientist), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Equality--Psychological aspects.

Equality.

Social stratification.

Income distribution.

Physical Description:

viii, 246 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Viking, [2017]

Summary:

"A timely examination by a leading scientist of the physical, psychological, and moral effects of inequality Today's inequality is on a scale that none of us has seen in our lifetimes, yet this disparity between rich and poor has ramifications that extend far beyond mere financial means. InThe Broken Ladderpsychologist Keith Payne examines how inequality divides us not just economically, but also has profound consequences for how we think, how our cardiovascular systems respond to stress, how our immune systems function, and how we view moral ideas such as justice and fairness. Experiments in psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics have not only revealed important new insights on how inequality changes people in predictable ways, but have also provided a corrective to our flawed way of viewing poverty as the result of individual character failings. Among modern developed societies, economic inequality is not primarily about money, but rather about relative status: where we stand in relation to other people. Regardless of their average income, countries or states with greater levels of income inequality have much higher rates of all the social problems we associate with poverty, including lower average life expectancies, serious health issues, mental illness, and crime. The Broken Ladderexplores such issues as why women in poor societies often have more children, and have them younger; why there is little trust among the working class that investing for the future will pay off; why people's perception of their relative social status affects their political beliefs, and why growing inequality leads to greater political divisions; how poverty raises stress levels in the same way as a physical threat; inequality in the workplace and how it affects performance; why unequal societies become more religious; and finally offers measures people can take to lessen the harm done by inequality in their own lives and the lives of their children"-- Provided by publisher.

"A timely examination by a leading social scientist of the physical, psychological, and moral effects of inequality. Today's inequality is on a scale that none of us has seen in our lifetimes, yet this disparity between rich and poor has ramifications that extend far beyond mere financial means. While conservatives look at poverty and see its roots in personal failures and liberals attribute it to a lack of opportunity, what both sides miss is that the psychology of inequality causes both poor opportunities and personal failures. Understanding how and why this occurs is our best chance at addressing it effectively. In The Broken Ladder psychologist Keith Payne examines for how inequality influences us as individuals, affecting our brains, our bodies, and our values. Inequality divides us not just economically, but has profound consequences on how we think, how our cardiovascular systems respond to stress, how our immune systems function, and how we view moral ideas like justice and fairness. Experiments in psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics have not only revealed important new insights on how inequality changes people in predictable ways, but have provided a corrective to our flawed way of viewing poverty as the result of individual character failings. The central argument of this book is that among modern, developed societies, economic inequality is not primarily about money, but rather about relative status: where we stand in relation to other people. Regardless of their average income, countries or states with greater levels of income inequality have much higher rates of all the social problems we associate with poverty, including lower average life expectancies, serious health issues, mental illness, and crime"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Lunch Lady Economics: Why Feeling Poor Hurts Like Being Poor 11

Chapter 2 Relatively Easy: Why We Can't Stop Comparing Ourselves to Others 31

Chapter 3 Poor Logic: Inequality Has a Logic of its Own 57

Chapter 4 The Right, the Left, and the Ladder: How inequality Divides Our Politics 83

Chapter 5 Long Lives and Tall Tombstones: Inequality Is a Matter of Life and Death 113

Chapter 6 God, Conspiracies, and the Language of the Angels: Why People Believe What They Need to Believe 135

Chapter 7 Inequality in Black and White: The Dangerous Dance of Racial and Economic Inequality 155

Chapter 8 The Corporate Ladder: Why Fair Pay Signals Fair Play 177

Chapter 9 The Art of Living Vertically. Flatter Ladders, Comparing with Care, and the Things That Matter Most 197.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Payne, Keith (Social scientist), author. Broken ladder

ISBN:

9780525429814

0525429816

OCLC:

956480018