Just finished reading this book. Really liked it. Firstly it’s readable, second it’s funny, and third it resonates pretty well with some stuff I have been thinking about recently. So yeah, well worth adding to your to read list (in fact that’s almost an order).
There is alot of reviews for this out there, so i’m not going to do that. Instead here’s a few bits I took my highlighter pen to.
The bit where we need to start thinking differently
Having come to the end of what higher material living standards can offer us, we are the first generation to have to find other ways of improving the real quality of life [chapter 2, page 29]
It seems sometimes we havn’t quite worked out that all this stuff that we’re supposed to be busy accumulating isn’t making us happier. I’m not sure how we collectivly wake up to it, and change the way society works so pursuit of wealth isn’t our
raison d’être, but maybe moving the focus away from GDP and economic growth might be a start.
The bit where punitive justice seems crazy
In California in 2004, there were 360 people serving life sentences for shoplifting [chapter 11, page 147]
Being this ‘tough on crime’ just seems totally disproportionate to me, I find it a little shocking that no one thought ‘hang on a minute…” The book goes on to explain a bit about how and why attitudes to crime are tougher when it’s more unequal, and why that’s not a good thing.
The bit that made me laugh
Experiments have also shown that physical wounds heal faster if people have good relationships with their intimate partners [chapter 6, page 76]
There’s actually some good stuff in there about the links between good social bonds and physical health, which are better when life is more equal, but there’s always a bit about sex and it made me laugh that they snuck one in.
There’s lots more in the book obviously, a full exploration of why equality is better for everyone. Well worth reading with highlighter in hand.
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