The latest issue of the Economist magazine has a review of the soon to-be-published book The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. According to the Economist, the book’s central thesis is that social inequality is the main cause of many of society’s ills. This is a fairly classical socialist argument. What appears to make Wilkinson and Pickett’s book different is that they base their argument on a rich selection of data that documents that:

Within the rich world, where destitution is rare, countries where incomes are more evenly distributed have longer-lived citizens and lower rates of obesity, delinquency, depression and teenage pregnancy than richer countries where wealth is more concentrated. Studies of British civil servants find that senior ones enjoy better health than their immediate subordinates, who in turn do better than those further down the ladder.

The book won’t be published in the United States for a few months. I look forward to reading it and I hope that it lives up to its promise of providing ample empirical support for the argument for some form of socialism.