11 May 2010

Rathbone Greenbank Investments sponsored this Bristol Festival of Ideas event featuring Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, which took place at St George's Hall, Bristol on 11 May 2010 at 19.30.

Large income inequalities have often been regarded as divisive and corrosive. Wilkinson and Pickett’s groundbreaking book, The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, demonstrates that more unequal societies are bad for both the well-off and the poor, with almost every modern social and environmental problem – ill-health, lack of community life, violence, drugs, obesity, mental illness, long working hours, large prison populations – more likely to occur. Shifting from self-interested ‘consumerism’ to a friendlier and more collaborative society, and finding a solution to social and environmental problems, is key to improving the real quality of life for everyone.