Kate Pickett explains how to turn the vicious circle of inequality and social mistrust into a virtuous one. Kate Pickett* Holidaying on the island of Arran, off the west coast of Scotland, we came upon a geological site known as Hutton’s Unconformity. James Hutton, an 18th-century geologist, became curious about …
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Nominally egalitarian education systems, Kate Pickett writes, can in reality reproduce deep social inequalities. Kate Pickett* I’ve been reading the economist Thomas Piketty’s most recent book, A Brief History of Equality, just published in English. I found it mostly uplifting—pointing as it does to the long progressive arc towards greater equality that has …
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Kate Pickett ponders how social scientists can bring structural inequalities to light when media focus on individual lives. Kate Pickett* Epidemiologists and public-health researchers tend to work at scale. Although, as with doctors, our work is aimed at uncovering the causes of disease and death, our focus is a population …
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Young working-class people may have an aversion to being categorised on the social ladder. But that doesn’t make the ladder go away. Kate Pickett* Ladders are a potent symbol of the structure of our societies. Our social discourse about status, rank and success is full of ladder images and metaphors. …
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“We don’t want to decapitate the tall poppies”, said Boris Johnson in July. Yet for Kate Pickett, his “levelling up” ambitions will necessitate flattening the whole social gradient. Kate Pickett* There has been enough sporting competition over the summer to remind us how tough it can be to be the …
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Kate Pickett argues the pandemic has not only massively affected public health but compounded the unhealthy effects of years of job insecurity. Kate Pickett* A recent article in the Guardian by a financial adviser recommended setting up several bank accounts for one’s personal finances. The advice, all sensible, was to help people manage their …
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Kate Pickett widens the panorama from the all-consuming coverage in Britain of the death of Prince Philip to ask why human lives and labours are so differentially valued. Kate Pickett* On April 9th, the husband of England’s queen died at the age of 99. The queen of the United Kingdom …
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