If money was the key factor in wellbeing, then wealthier countries would have the highest levels of wellbeing. That is not the case. In this Ted Talk Richard Wilkinson displays that countries with the lowest levels of economic inequality have the highest levels of wellbeing. And, it is not just the poor that are worse off in countries with high inequality—those in the middle and the rich are affected to.
Why does greater inequality lessen shalom? The Ted Talk does not answer address that question, but in their book, The Spirit Level, Wilkinson and Kate Picket do. “Greater inequality seems to heighten people’s social evaluation anxieties by increasing the importance of social status” (43). Shame and the stress related to status competition negatively impact health and interpersonal relationships.
This information shifted the way I thought about helping the poor. I wrote a blog in 2017 exploring Wilkinson’s points in more detail and reflecting on how the church could lessen the inequality gap and lessen the negatives of the gap through honoring people and healing shame. The following month I wrote a blog focused on the key role Christian business people could play: “Inequality: Businesses Lessening the Gap, Healing the Wounds.”
This month I am sharing with you, through a video, the story of a Honduran friend who made changes in his business that increased wages and, even more, increased the workers sense of dignity and overall wellbeing.
Listen to or watch the 13 minute video (made originally for a class)