Question

According to Wilkinson's research, how does economic inequality have the potential to affect the health and well-being of individuals and societies?

Answer 1

Answer.

Wilkinson and Pickett (2009) argued strongly that there is an increasing concern about the consequences of income inequality in public health and social problems. Within any particular society, those with higher incomes do better on a range of outcomes. There is a ‘social gradient’ in health, which means that every step up the socio-economic ladder leads to an increase in health and thus those who remain at the lower income level consequently have more health issues due to the inability to have a ready lay available access to adequate healthcare.

Moreover, Wilkinson highlighted that the most plausible explanation for income inequality’s effect on health and social problems is ‘status anxiety’. This concept indicates that income inequality is adversarial because it places people in a hierarchy or social stratificationthat increases status competition and causes stress, which leads to poor health and other negative outcomes. A Socially stratified society not only represents a divided society but also creates a variability in status quo and self-esteem that is associated with social status. Thus, the low income groups repeatedly tend to develop self defeating attitudes and believe that change is impossible which may lead to inaction and hopelessness about any transformational collective action.