Chuck Darwin<p>The world can no longer afford two things: <br>🔸the costs of economic inequality; <br>🔸and the rich. </p><p>Between 2020 and 2022, the world’s most affluent 1% of people captured nearly twice as much of the new global wealth created as did the other 99% of individuals put together<br>And in 2019 they emitted as much <a href="https://c.im/tags/carbon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>carbon</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/dioxide" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>dioxide</span></a> as the poorest two-thirds of humanity. <br>In the decade to 2022, the world’s billionaires more than doubled their wealth, to almost US$12 trillion.</p><p>The evidence gathered by social epidemiologists, including us, shows that large differences in income are a powerful <a href="https://c.im/tags/social" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>social</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/stressor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>stressor</span></a> that is increasingly rendering societies dysfunctional. <br>For example, bigger gaps between rich and poor are accompanied by higher rates of <a href="https://c.im/tags/homicide" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>homicide</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/imprisonment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>imprisonment</span></a>. <br>They also correspond to more <a href="https://c.im/tags/infant" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>infant</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/mortality" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>mortality</span></a>, <a href="https://c.im/tags/obesity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>obesity</span></a>, <a href="https://c.im/tags/drug" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>drug</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/abuse" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>abuse</span></a> and @COVID-19 <a href="https://c.im/tags/deaths" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>deaths</span></a>, as well as higher rates of teenage pregnancy and lower levels of child well-being, social mobility and public trust<br>The <a href="https://c.im/tags/homicide" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>homicide</span></a> rate in the United States <br>— the most unequal Western democracy<br> — is more than 11 times that in Norway (see go.nature.com/49fuujr). <br><a href="https://c.im/tags/Imprisonment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Imprisonment</span></a> rates are ten times as high, and infant mortality and obesity rates twice as high.</p><p>These problems don’t just hit the poorest individuals, although the poorest are most badly affected. <br>Even <a href="https://c.im/tags/affluent" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>affluent</span></a> people would enjoy a better quality of life if they lived in a country with a more equal distribution of wealth, similar to a Scandinavian nation. <br>They might see improvements in their mental health and have a reduced chance of becoming victims of violence; their children might do better at school and be less likely to take dangerous drugs.</p><p>The costs of inequality are also excruciatingly high for <a href="https://c.im/tags/governments" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>governments</span></a>. <br>For example, the Equality Trust, a charity based in London (of which we are patrons and co-founders), estimated that the United Kingdom alone could save more than £100 billion ($126 billion) per year if it reduced its inequalities to the average of those in the five countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that have the smallest income differentials<br> — Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands5. <br>And that is considering just four areas: greater number of years lived in full health, better mental health, reduced homicide rates and lower imprisonment rates.<br>Many commentators have drawn attention to the environmental need to limit economic growth and instead prioritize sustainability and well-being. <br>Here we argue that tackling inequality is the foremost task of that transformation. <br>Greater @equality will reduce unhealthy and excess consumption, and will increase the <a href="https://c.im/tags/solidarity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>solidarity</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/cohesion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>cohesion</span></a> that are needed to make societies more adaptable in the face of climate and other emergencies.</p><p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00723-3" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">nature.com/articles/d41586-024</span><span class="invisible">-00723-3</span></a></p>