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According to Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (2009), almost all the problems we associate with life in modern developed societies can be traced to one common cause. This is a big idea, one that should radically change the way we think about politics, economics, fairness and social justice. The common factor they have identified has the power to help forge a society that is healthier, where people trust each other more, where children have higher literacy, where there is less stress, less violence, less drug dependence and less mental illness. While we are spending millions to tackle each of these problems individually, often with questionable results, there is one solution that could tackle them all at the same time. This shared answer is not, as many of our politicians would have it, to speed up and strengthen economic growth, forging policy in the fearful shadow of the markets’ reaction as if they were some kind of capricious deity. Instead, it is greater income equality: if we want to do better we need to become more equal.

‘A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members’(Mahatma Ghandi). Among developed nations, there is a general consensus that one of the functions of the state is to at the very least provide a ‘safety net’that protects the poorest in society from the worst effects of poverty, while also taking steps to ensure that people have the opportunities–largely through education and entrepreneurship–to move out of poverty.