The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live and Die

The Broken Ladder

By Keith Payne. Examines how inequality divides people not just economically; but also its consequences for how people think, how they respond to stress, how their immune systems function, and even how they view moral concepts such as justice and fairness. Explores why women in poor societies often have more children, and why they have them at a younger age; why there is little trust among the working class in the prudence of investing for the future; why people’s perception of their social status affects their political beliefs and leads to greater political divisions; how poverty raises stress levels as effectively as actual physical threats; how inequality in the workplace affects performance; and why unequal societies tend to become more religious. Read more.