johaneriksson.se

It’s not uncommon for people with a different set of political beliefs than mine, to claim that income inequality causes a number of social ills. While no policy goals follow from that being so, it’s an important question well worth asking. Recently, a book called The Spirit Level, by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, has been getting some attention. It argues that income inequality leads to physical and mental health problems, drug abuse, crime and an array of other problems.

If correct, the book would provide a strong argument in favour of social democratic redistribution policies. However, it appears to suffer from the rather common problem of mistaking correlation for causality. Tino Sanandaji explains:

From a theoretical perspective, social problems cause inequality, or are often both caused by deeper ills. In fact it is difficult to think about a social problem that does not cause inequality! Low level of human capital makes your more likely to not take care of your health and causes low income. Bad norms cause crime and low income. Drug use causes problems and low income. Family disruptions causes social problems and low income. And so on.

If The Spirit Level wants to make extraordinary claims (middle class people become more likely to die if the rich grow richer) they need extraordinary evidence.

Finding causality is not an easy job. One has to be careful.

—-

Andra intressanta bloggar om: politik, jämlikhet, inkomst