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

by Keith Payne

A timely examination by a leading scientist of the physical, psychological, and moral effects of inequality.   Today’s inequality is on a scale that none of us has seen in our lifetimes, yet this disparity between rich and poor has ramifications that extend far beyond mere financial means. In The Broken Ladder psychologist Keith Payne examines how inequality divides us not just economically, but has profound consequences for how we think, how our cardiovascular systems respond to stress, how our immune systems function, and how we view moral ideas like justice and fairness. Experiments in psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral economics have not only revealed important new insights on how inequality changes people in predictable ways, but have provided a corrective to our flawed way of viewing poverty as the result of individual character failings. Among modern, developed societies, economic inequality is not primarily about money, but rather about relative where we stand in relation to other people. Regardless of their average income, countries or states with greater levels of income inequality have much higher rates of all the social problems we associate with poverty, including lower average life expectancies, serious health issues, mental illness, and crime.   The Broken Ladder explores such issues as why women in poor societies often have more children, and have them younger; why there is little trust among the working class that investing for the future will pay off; why people’s perception of their relative social status affects their political beliefs, and why growing inequality leads to greater political divisions; how poverty raises stress levels in the same way as a physical threat; inequality in the workplace, and how it affects performance; why unequal societies become more religious; and finally offers measures people can take to lessen the harm done by inequality in their own lives and the lives of their children.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Psychology, Economics, Sociology, Social Justice, Business

251 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Keith Payne is a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an international leader in the psychology of inequality and discrimination. His research has been featured in The Atlantic and The New York Times, and on NPR, and he has written for Scientific American and Psychology Today.

Reviews

[Maede · Rating 5 out of 5]

یک
از خواب بلند میشی، اینستاگرام رو باز می‌کنی. طرف اونور دنیا از روی تخت سفیدش در سانتورینی یونان بلند میشه و همینطور که عشقش دستش رو گرفته به سمت استخر داخل اتاقشون که رو به اقیانوسه میره. نگاه می‌کنی. چقدر اینجا قشنگه! چهار ساعت بعد بدون اینکه دختر اینفلوئنسر یادت باشه حالت گرفته‌ست. «دارم با زندگیم چه غلطی می‌کنم؟» ولی نمی‌دونی چرا یهو اینجوری شدی

دو
به خودت میگی من اگر فقط ایکس میلیون درآمدم بیشتر بود همه چیز راحت‌تر می‌شد. اینجوری همون روز اول حقوقم تموم میشه. ایکس میلیون به درآمدت اضافه میشه. خوشحالی چون زندگی راحت‌تره. چندماه می‌گذره. به خودت میگی من اگر فقط ایگرگ میلیون به درآمدم اضافه می‌شد همه چیز راحت‌تر بود

سه
مادربزرگت توی یک اتاق خونه پنج دری با چندتا خانواده دیگه زندگی می‌کرده. تلویزیون، ماشین لباسشویی و تلفن در حد رویا هم نبوده. اما احساس فقر نمی‌کرده. تو همه این‌ها رو داری. حتی شاید خیلی بیشتر. اما احساس می‌کنی هیچی نداری. احساس می‌کنی از بازی این دنیا بدجوری جا موندی

چرا؟
چون تو داری در ثروتمندترین و در عین حال نابرابرترین دوره تاریخ زندگی می‌کنی. یک درصد جهان ۴۶٪ ثروت جهان رو دارند و تو به لطف اینترنت و مدیا صبح تا شب نگاهشون می‌کنی. حتی اگر گوشیت رو بشکونی، هرجا که میری چیزی هست که به تو یادآوری کنه که بدجور عقبی! حتی اگر خودت متوجه این پروسه دائمی در مغزت نشی و فقط نتیجه به تو اعلام بشه، ناگهان حس کنی چقدر بی‌مصرفی و زندگیت رو حروم کردی

مغزت، مغز تکاملی احمق و شگفت‌انگیزت، کاری جز این بلد نیست. یاد گرفته که برای زنده نگه داشتن تو دائم باید مقایسه‌ت کنه و بهت هشدار بده که مواظب خودت باشی. که بیشتر تلاش کنی. که نمیری. چیزی که نمی‌فهمه اینه تو از بنز سوار نشدن، قدم نزدن در سانتورینی و نداشتن خونه دویست و پنجاه متری نمیمیری. فقط استدلال می‌کنه که وقتی بقیه این‌ها رو دارند، خب لابد تو هم باید داشته باشی

اینجاست که نردبان شکسته نابرابری زندگی رو سخت می‌کنه. نردبانی که این روزها انقدر بلند شده و فاصله‌ی بالایی‌ها با پایینی‌ها انقدر زیاد شده که به نظر میاد در دو جهان متفاوت زندگی می‌کنند. بالایی‌ها در آسمان و پایینی‌ها روی زمین و حتی شاید پایین‌تر

کتاب درباره‌ی نابرابری صحبت می‌کنه و از تأثیراتش روی زندگی افراد میگه. اینکه چرا حس فقر به اندازه‌ی خود فقر می‌تونه اذیت‌کننده باشه. چرا ما نمی‌تونیم دست از مقایسه‌ی همیشگی بکشیم. چرا نابرابری مسئله‌ی مرگ و زندگیه و چندین چرای دیگر. نویسنده که خودش در فقر بزرگ شده، می‌دونه داره از چی صحبت می‌کنه. هر فصل شامل تعداد بسیار زیادی تحقیق علمیه که توضیح داده میشن و ازشون نتیجه‌گیری میشه. تعداد نکات انقدر زیاد بود که حس می‌کنم این کتاب رو اگر حداقل دوبار نخونم فایده‌ای نداره. اتفاقی که افتاد این‌ بود که با این کتاب من از زاویه‌ای به مسائل نگاه کردم که شاید هرگز در نظر نگرفته بودم. زاویه‌ای که برام دلایل پشت بعضی از اتفاقاتی که این سال‌ها در ایران می‌بینیم رو واضح‌تر می‌کنه. تمام مدت خواندن کتاب فکر می‌کردم که در پس این خشم، حال ناخوش و تلخی همیشگی‌ای که انگار این سال‌ها ایران رو گرفته، چیزی فراتر از فقره. هیولای سیاه و مخفی‌تری به اسم نابرابری

نویسنده در حین موشکافی تاثیرات نابرابری، وارد موضوعاتی میشه که اساسی و بحث برانگیزند. مسئولیت فقر بر عهده کیه؟ فرد فقیر یا جامعه؟ و آیا برابری واقعا چیزیه که انسان‌ها می‌خوان؟
این کتاب بدون شک از بهترین کتاب‌هاییه که امسال خواندم. کتابی که از الان می‌دونم بهش برمی‌گردم و این برای من که کمتر اهل بازخوانی هستم کم چیزی نیست

این کانال جدیدیه که بعد از بسته شدن قبلی درست کردم و کتاب‌ها و ریویو‌ها رو اینجا می‌گذارم
Maede's Books

۱۴۰۰/۹/۹

[Maziyar Yf · Rating 3 out of 5]

بدون شک جهان فعلی به بالاترین سطح و درجه از پیشرفت و تکنولوژی و در نتیجه ثروت رسیده است ، بدون تردید انسانها در این قرن ، زندگی راحت تر ، تغذیه بهتر و طول عمر بیشتری دارند ، بشر امروزه دیگر در برابر بیماری هایی مانند طاعون ، سل و مالاریا ایمن شده و در بیشتر کشورهای جهان فجایع طبیعی مانند سیل و زلزله با وجود خسارت بار بودن فراوان ، تلفات جانی کمتری دارند اما پیشرفت سرسام آور علم با خود مشکلاتی به همراه آورده که خود جدید بوده و از جنس چالش های پیشین بشر نیستند ، برخی از این مشکلات مانند تخریب محیط زیست چنان پیچیده شده اند که علم امروز پاسخی برای حل آن ندارد ، یکی دیگر از ابرچالش های تهدید کننده انسان نابرابری ایست که آقای کیت پین در کتاب نردبان شکسته به صورت مختصر و خلاصه به آن پرداخته است .
نابرابری در جوامع پدیده شگفت انگیز و بیماری بدخیمی ایست که درمان ندارد ، در تمام دنیا ثروتمندان به خاطر تغذیه بهتر ، عموما عمر طولانی تر ، زندگی سالم تر و کیفیت زندگی بالاتری دارند ، در هنگام بیماری هم به جای انتظار در صفهای طولانی بیمارستانهای دولتی ، به بیمارستان های خصوصی با کیفیت بسیار بالاتر دسترسی دارند ، قدرت خرید هر دارویی از هر نقطه جهان را دارند واصولا برخی از داروها به خاطر درمان آنان ساخته می شود و مختص افراد عادی نیست . ثروتمندان در دانشگاه هایی با کیفیت تر تحصیل می کنند و به خاطر تحصیلات بالاتر ، شغل های مهمتری هم دارند و معمولا وقتی برای پیدا کردن کار تلف نمی کنند ، کار و موقعیت شغلی خود به سراغ آنان می رود . به همین ترتیب با دسترسی به وکیل های حرفه ای تر و شاید هم قاضی و دادستان ها ، قانون از ثروتمندان بیشتر حمایت می کند ، البته قانون هم در جهت منافع آنان تنظیم شده است .با در نظر گرفتن اینکه درصد بالایی ازثروت از طریق ارث والدین به فرزندان منتقل می شود بهتر می توان به مفهوم چرخیدن ثروت در دست افراد معدودی از جامعه و بی بهره بودن اکثریت مردم از آن پی برد . در کل این ثروتمندان هستند که طبقه الیت یا نخبه هر جامعه را ساخته و برای اکثریت تصمیم می گیرند .
اما این نابرابری عظیم با روح و روان جامعه چه می کند ؟ دیدن ثروت و قدرت بی پایان افرادی مانند راکفلر یا ایلان ماسک یا اندک نفرات دیگر که ثروت آنها از میلیاردها فقیر در آفریقا یا آسیا بیشتر است چه بلایی سر روح و روان توده مردم عادی و فقیر می آورد ؟
پاسخی که نویسنده به این سوال داده کوتاه و مختصر بوده اما بارها در کتاب تکرار شده ، نابرابری جامعه را دوگانه یا چند گانه می کند ، مردم را در برابر یکدیگر قرار داده ، سبب تقسیم بندی یا دو قطبی و یا چند قطبی اقتصادی شده ، با تحمیل استرس باعث پدید آمدن بیماری های روحی و روانی با درجات مختلف شده و به همین گونه بدن انسان را هم در برابر بیماری ضعیف می کند ، نابرابری در شیوه فکر ، در راهی که انتخاب می کنیم هم اثر می گذارد ، با شکل گیری پدیده نابرابری و درک ناقصی که عموم از آن دارند مسیری انتخاب می کنند که چون غالبا بر پایه دانش ناقصی شکل گرفته ، معمولا بی سرانجام و اشتباه است اما شاید از همه مهمتر احساس فقیر بودن باشد که فرد را گرفتار خود می کند ، بدون آنکه فقیر باشد . در چنین حالتی ذهن فرد وارد چرخه ای بی پایان از افکاری خالی از هر گونه نوآوری شده ، افکاری که فرد بدون آنکه فقیر باشد مجبور به اندیشیدن همانند فقرا می کند .
آمریکا ، کشور نویسنده نابرابرترین کشور در میان کشورهای پیشرفته است ، عملکرد آمریکا در زمینه کاهش نابرابری به اندازه ای ناموفق بوده که ثروتمندترین کشور جهان با فقیرترین کشور پیشرفته یعنی پرتغال در یک رده قرار دارد ، کشورهای اسکاندیناوی بهترین عملکرد را داشته و کشورهای مهم دیگر مانند فرانسه ، آلمان و ایتالیا جایگاهی در میانه جدول و به مراتب بهتر از آمریکا دارند .
باید توجه داشت که نویسنده تنها نابرابری در داخل جامعه را بررسی کرده است ، در حالی که در بیشتر کشورهای جهان دو نوع نا برابری وجود دارد : یک - داخلی و میان مردمان و دیگری خارجی و میان مردمان کشورهای مختلف . آشکار است که نویسنده گونه دوم نابرابری را اصلا بررسی نکرده و شاید برای او مفهومی جدید باشد .
خواندن این کتاب همزمان شد با دیدن سخنرانی از دکتر محمد فاضلی ، جامعه شناس و استاد دانشگاه که به صورت تصادفی بخشهایی از آن مربوط به نابرابری بود ، او جامعه را به دو دسته تقسیم کرده : کسانی که می دوند و به جایی نمی رسند و کسانی که به جایی رسیده اند بدون آنکه دویده باشند .دکتر فاضلی در ادامه سخنرانی خود و برای کاستن از خسارات مرگبار نابرابری ،خواهان کاهش مقایسه شده است ، او مقایسه میان شناخت کاملی که از خود داریم با شناخت ناقصی که از دیدن یک تصویر یا یک کلیپ بدست می آید را فلج کننده و بسیار زیان بار می داند . البته نویسنده هم مقایسه را تله ای اجتماعی دانسته ، از دیدگاه آقای پین از آنجا که بیشتر افراد خود را با بالا کسانی که وضعیت مالی بهتری دارند مقایسه می کنند ، ناخود آگاه احساس فقیر بودن می کنند بدون آنکه فقیر باشند و دچار همان عوارض نابرابری می شوند که افراد فقیر دارند ، در حقیقت احساس فقیر بودن هم اندازه فقیر بودن رنج آور ، زیان بار و مانعی باز دارنده است .
نویسنده کتاب در ادامه خواننده را با تصمیم گیری هایی که گویا به گونه ای در میان فقرا نهادینه شده آشنا می کند ، مانند ازدواج زودهنگام و تعداد بیشتر فرزندان ، یا اتلاف سرمایه در بارها به جای پس انداز آن برای آینده فرزندان ، و یا میزان بیشتر پرخاشگری و دعوای فیزیکی که ناشی از استرس نابرابری ایست که به فقرا بیشتر وارد می شود .
اما نوع دیگری از نابرابری هم وجود دارد که نویسنده یا به آن آگاه نبوده و شاد هم به دلیل شرم این نابرابری مهم را نادیده گرفته است : نابرابری در ارزش جان انسانها
امروز که اروپا درگیر جنگ دیگری این بار در اوکراین شده است ، این نابرابری را آشکارتر از هر زمان دیگری می بینیم ، آنجا که جهان جان موبلوندهای چشم آبی را به جان یمنی ها ، سوری ها ، عراقی ها و افغان ها آن هم با نهایت بی شرمی ترجیح داده و گویا هیچ احساس سرافکندگی و یا خجالتی هم از آن ندارد . این نابرابری در جهانی که دم از برابری می زند شاید جمله تاریخی جرج اورول در کتاب مزرعه حیوانات را به خاطر خواننده بیاورد که همه با هم برابرند ولی برخی برابرترند .

[sadra jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

بعد از دو سال کرونا و مجازی بودن دانشگاه، بالاخره دانشگاه ها حضوری شد. بعضی از دوستانم واقعا در این دو سال تغییر کرده بودند. یکی از دوستانم که روستایی بود ازدواج کرده بود. دیگر وقتی برای درس خواندن نداشت و در به در دنبال کار بود. حتی راضی بود راننده اسنپ شود. در حالی که هم دانشکده ای هایش به وکیل شدن فکر میکردند...🤕
کتاب نردبان شکسته رو مازیارجان با ریویوهای طوفانیش بهم معرفی کرد. واقعا از خوندنش لذت بردم. یک کتاب علمی مفید و درست درمون که آدم حسابی چیزای به دردر بخور ازش یاد میگیره. هم مسائل نظری و هم عملی.
این کتابو میشه میان رشته ای بین اقتصاد، جامعه شناسی و روانشناسی دونست که به علت و تاثیرات نابرابری میپردازه.
<نابرابری از فقر بدتره. احساس نابرابری از نابرابری بدتر.>
احساس نابرابری باعث میشه به درازمدت فکر نکنیم و راضی بشیم که در کوتاه مدت سود بیشتری به دست بیاریم. رو به خرافات بیاریم. تصمیمات سیاسیمون عوض میشه. انتخاب های اشتباهی بکنیم که اوضاع ما رو از این هم بدتر میکنه. کیت پین این تاثیر و تاثُرها رو تماما احساسی نمیدونه بلکه اثبات میکنه که اکثرش فیزیولوژیکه و حتی حیوانات هم رفتارهایی مشابه رو در این مواقع نشون دادن. زیست شناسی، آمارهای اجتماعی، مقالات علمی و خلاصه هر چیزیکه بتونه این کتاب رو یه کتاب واقعا علمی کنه یک جا جمع شده.
این کتاب خودش رو میاره وسط خونه زندگی های ما. وسط کوچه و خیابون ها و گاهی مثل یک سیاستمدار خبره از بالا به مسائل نگاه میکنه. خیلی از باورهای ما و تصمیماتمون به این برمیگرده که احساس میکنیم از بقیه عقب تریم. مقایسه مدام ما با پولدارتر از خودمون. تقاضای اشیاء لوکس و چیزای پر زرق و برقی که هیچ ضرورتی نداره اما به خاطر اینکه نشون بدیم از اون بالایی ها چیزی کم نداریم بهش رو میاریم. پامونو روی نیازهای مهم تر میذاریم و حداقلش اینه که وقتمونو که برای کاریهای مهم تر و ضروری تری بود، صرف این چیزها میکنیم.
مثال های این کتاب از جامعه آمریکاییه و طبیعتا مسائلش هم اندکی متفاوت با کشور ماست. اما در اکثر موارد اگر هم مستقیما این موارد در جامعه ما صدق نکنه لااقل قابل عبرت و درس گرفتنه. مسائلی مثل تبعیض نژادی یا چالش های کشورهای توسعه یافته. کیت پین به ما میگه که رشد اقتصادی و درآمد از یک جا به بعد تاثیر خاصی در امید به زندگی و سایر ملاک های یک زندگی خوب نداره و اون همون نقطه ایه که ما از فقر مطلق خارج میشیم و از پس نیازهای اساسی زندگیمون بر میایم. بنابراین برخلاف کشورهای توسعه یافته که باید به ضریب جینی و کاهش نابرابری تمرکز کنن، کشورهای در حال توسعه باید به رفع فقر مطلق و رشد اقتصادی فکر کنن.
مهاجرت معمولا باعث پیشرفت میشه حتی اگه از یک محله به محله ی دیگه باشه و گرنه میشید مثل اکثر مردم که در همون سطح مالی و طبقاتی والدین خودشون تا آخر زندانی میشن البته شاید به خاطر ریسک نکردن و حمایت بی مضایقه خانواده ارزششو داشته باشه.
فصل آخر کتاب، طوفان راهکارها و جواب همه ی«که چی؟» هاییه که حین خوندن این کتاب ایجاد میشه. بخش جالبش برای من اونجایی بود که میگفت توی مسائل مالی به فقیرتر خودتون نگاه کنید تا احساس کمبود روی انتخاب های کوچیک و بزرگتون تاثیر منفی نذاره. این مضمون رو داخل یه حدیث از امام علی هم خونده بودم که میگفتن توی مسائل مادی به پایین تر خودتون و توی مسائل معنوی به بالاتر از خودتون نگاه کنید.
به نظر من یه نکته ای رو هم اگه بخوایم بر اساس زیست بوم ایران به این کتاب اضافه کنیم. تاثیر زندگی در کلان شهر هایی با اختلاف طبقاتی مثل تهران بر حس نابرابری هست که در کوته فکری، عدم دید استراتژیک و بلندمدت افراد تاثیر جدی داره.
<خلاصه که از من میشنوید این کتابو بخونید که خایییییییییلی خوبه>😊

[Book Shark · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

“The Broken Ladder” is an excellent book that examines what inequality does to us as people. Psychologist Keith Payne examines how inequality changes how we experience the world and makes use of the latest insights in psychology, neuroscience and behavioral science to illustrate such changes. This insightful 252-page book includes the following nine chapters: 1. Lunch Lady Economics: Why Feeling Poor Hurts Like Being Poor, 2. Relatively Easy: Why We Can’t Stop Comparing Ourselves to Others, 3. Poor Logic: Inequality Has a Logic of Its Own, 4. The Right, the Left, and the Ladder: How Inequality Divides Our Politics, 5. Long Lives and Tall Tombstones: Inequality Is a Matter of Life and Death, 6. God, Conspiracies, and the Language of the Angels: Why People Believe What They Need to Believe, 7. Inequality in Black and White: The Dangerous Dance of Racial and Economic Inequality, 8. The Corporate Ladder: Why Fair Pay Signals Fair Play, and 9. The Art of Living Vertically: Flatter Ladders, Comparing with Care, and the Things That Matter Most.

Positives:
1. Engaging, well-written, well-researched book that is accessible to the masses.
2. An important and timely hot-button topic in the masterful hands of Keith Payne, how inequality affects us.
3. Good use of charts and diagrams to complement the excellent narrative.
4. Does a great job of describing key concepts of the book. “Over the years, hundreds of studies have replicated the Lake Wobegon effect. The studies show that most of us believe we are above average in intelligence, persistence, conscientiousness, badminton, and just about any other positive quality. The more we value the trait, the more we overrate ourselves with respect to it.”
5. Makes great use of multiple disciplines like psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral sciences to illustrate key points. Here he makes use of evolution, “The discovery that capuchin monkeys are averse to receiving unequal outcomes, much like humans, suggests that these tendencies are evolved rather than learned.”
6. Making clear what poverty and wealth truly are. “poverty and wealth are always relative to what other people have in a particular time and place.”
7. The keys to inequality. “Poverty concerns what a person has or lacks, while inequality describes how money is distributed, charting the distance between the haves and have-nots.”
8. Describes the impact of poor environments. “In short, poor environments cause poor outcomes, as a lack of resources leads to a lack of opportunity.”
9. Interesting section on the differences between liberals and conservatives. “The first and most obvious is that conservatives generally want to preserve tradition and the status quo, while liberals want to see changes in society.” “The second fundamental distinction between conservatives and liberals is their willingness to accept inequality.” “In study after study, subjects who see the world as a threatening and dangerous place tend to be more politically conservative. Those who see the world as safe, and who are motivated by exploring and trying new experiences, tend to support more liberal views.”
10. Interesting observations. “Sociologist Robb Willer analyzed presidential approval ratings between 2001 and 2004 and found that whenever the terror alert increased, so, too, did approval ratings for President Bush.” “Taken together, these observations suggest that the rise in inequality that has occurred over the past few decades might be contributing to increasingly intense partisanship and political conflict.”
11. The role of relative status examined. “As we expected based on the role of relative status, the higher-status group wanted to cut taxes and reduce redistribution, and the lower-status group wanted to increase taxes and benefits for future generations of players.”
12. Examines the feeling of superiority. “This research was the first to show that feeling superior in status magnifies our feeling that we see reality as it is while our opponents are deluded. It supports the idea that as the top and the bottom of the social ladder drift further apart, our politics will become more divisive. That is exactly what has happened over the past several decades.”
13. Interesting factoids spruced throughout the book. “In the U.S., states with higher inequality tend to have shorter life expectancies.”
14. Fascinating and eye-opening look at stress. “Stress does not create new energy; it only redirects it: When the stress response gives a boost in one area, it has to take something away somewhere else. In the face of the potential emergency stirring in the grass, your body shuts down all unnecessary functions. The glucose and proteins that flood your bloodstream are now being taken away from long-term projects like cell division, maintenance, and repair and redirected to the muscles.” “Indeed, studies have shown that people with lower incomes tend to have higher levels of stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline, in their bloodstreams.”
15. An examination of conspiracy theories. “To believe in a conspiracy, you trade a bit of your belief that the world is good, fair, and just in exchange for the conviction that at least someone—anyone—has everything under control.”
16. The relation between religion and inequality. “Highly unequal countries were much more religious than more equal ones.”
17. Examines how widening income inequality fuels racial prejudice and how racial stereotypes are used to justify and preserve that inequality. “The white applicant was called back twice as often as the equally qualified black applicant. Similar studies have been repeated with the same results in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and other cities. They have also been replicated in areas other than employment. Black renters are much more likely than equally qualified white renters to be told there are no vacant apartments. Black shoppers are offered less favorable deals on cars and higher interest rates on mortgages than equally qualified whites. Antiblack bias is alive and well in twenty-first-century America.” “The researchers found that the “blacker” the inmates looked, the longer they were sentenced for identical offenses. Those near the top of the scale for “blackness” were sentenced between seven and eight months longer than those near the bottom.
18. Provocative statements. “Many people simply don’t feel very motivated to support fighting poverty when they imagine that minorities will be the beneficiaries.”
19. Sports inequality, who knew? “The teams with the greatest levels of pay inequality performed worse than those with less inequality.” Interesting.
20. A final chapter that brings it all together. “Inequality affects our behavior, and differences in behavior can magnify inequality.”
21. Key suggestions made. “Reducing inequality, similarly, has the potential to address scores of problems at once. But that requires moving away from seeing inequality through a moralizing lens. Instead, I believe we have to view inequality as a public health problem.” “Performance in real life depends on ability, effort, and chance.”

Negatives:
1. I don’t agree with every assertion. Consider, “And the method works. Individuals who are religious tend to be happier and less anxious—about both life and death—than those who are not. Some belief systems provide comfort and reassurance in ways that ordinary thinking cannot.” Comfort yes but happier? There is a great book called Society Without God by Phil Zuckerman that would contest such conclusion.
2. Notes were not linked, thus not taking advantage of the power of electronic books.
3. No formal bibliography.
4. As with most books of this ilk, much more time is spent analyzing the ills than the cure.

In summary, what a fun, stimulating book this was. Payne hits a homerun by focusing on the many ways that inequality impacts our society. The findings are compelling and his suggestions are persuasive. A high recommendation!

Further suggestions: “Toxic Inequality” by Thomas M. Shapiro, “A Colony In A Nation” by Chris Hayes, “Winner-Take All Politics” by Jacob S. Hacker, “Screwed the Undeclared War Against the Middle Class” by Thom Hartmann, “The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America…” by Michael W. Hudson, “White Rage” by Carol Anderson, “Perfectly Legal…” by David Cay Johnston, “This Fight Is Our Fight” by Elizabeth Warren, “The Looting of America” by Les Leopold and “The Great American Stickup” by Robert Scheer.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 3 out of 5]

The psychology of inequality is an essential topic in a world where inequality is growing ever greater, but this is just a so-so book. It raises some important points and insightful studies, but for a big topic and only 219 pages of text, it spends an awful lot of time wandering off into other issues of interest to the author (mostly studies related to American politics), and there are some questionable bits. In the end it has all the depth of a Psychology Today article—a publication to which the author has also contributed—but it’s a very quick read, so take it for what you will.

Some interesting/important bits:

- Feeling poor is bad for people’s psychological well-being, quite apart from any actual deprivations related to being poor. People (and monkeys) who are lower in the social hierarchy experience more stress, which often leads to more health problems and shorter lives.

- Indices of social well-being are higher in places with more economic equality, especially once basic needs are met.

- People are programmed to focus their attention and resources on the present moment in situations of danger and deprivation, which makes it harder for poor people to make and execute long-term plans. Even in the limited context of laboratory studies, making people feel deprived causes them to engage in more risk-taking.

- Even when people intellectually know that a person’s standing is unrelated to their merits, we can’t seem to separate the two. In studies where people are told that players in a game are rewarded utterly at random, successful ones still believe they’re more skilled and deserving. The successful players are also more likely to vote that unsuccessful players’ votes about changing the rules of the game shouldn’t count.

- Surveys show that Democrats in the U.S. think CEOs should make 4 times as much as the average worker; for Republicans, it’s 5 times. In reality, CEOs make 350 times the average worker’s salary. Despite this apparent consensus, however, political polarization has risen in lockstep with economic inequality, suggesting a link between the two.

- Control over one’s work and a sense of fairness about the pay scale are important to workers’ well-being, and workers find ways to retaliate otherwise.

Some bits that felt more tangential:

- People tend to rate themselves above average on most or all traits, even if their situation seems to objectively contradict it (people in the hospital for car accidents they caused still rate themselves above average drivers).

- People’s political beliefs may be more flexible than we think; researchers in studies can trick about half their participants into arguing for beliefs the opposite of what they actually expressed on a survey.

- The author spends a bunch of time creating straw Democrats and Republicans, seemingly so he can make himself look moderate by arguing that the truth is somewhere between the two. He seems really preoccupied with American politics in general.

Some things that just seemed poorly thought through:

- A couple of scatterplots purporting to show a correlation between inequality and social well-being in different U.S. states, in which the author appears to have just drawn a slope through a random grouping of dots. It sure doesn’t look statistically significant; if it is, showing that with the numbers rather than these unconvincing charts might have been a better plan.

- People who feel powerless may well be more inclined to believe conspiracy theories (or anything else that explains the world and makes it seem more just), but if a survey tells you that 4% of Americans believe the world is controlled by reptilian shapeshifters, either you have a small sample size of truly weird people, or some of your participants are having fun at the interviewers’ expense. I suspect both; Payne apparently suspects nothing.

In the end, an okay book and one that doesn’t take long to read, which does contain some worthwhile information. However, there’s a lot more the author could have dug into here, and it’s awfully U.S.-centric for a psychology book. I’m disappointed it wasn’t better.

[Negar Afsharmanesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب جامعه‌شناسانه درباره تأثیر نابرابری اقتصادی- اجتماعی بر طرز فکر، زندگی و مرگ انسان‌ها بود.

نابرابری ما را از هم جدا می‌کند و در جبهه‌هایی قرار می‌دهد که نه‌تنها براساس درآمد، بلکه براساس ایدئولوژی و نژاد از هم تفکیک شده‌اند، به‌این‌ترتیب اعتماد به دیگری را کاهش می‌دهد، اضطراب ایجاد می‌کند و باعث می‌شود سلامت و شادیِ ما کمتر شود.
کتاب کتاب بدی نبود ولی خب یه کم برای من تکراری بود من نکات کتاب رو در کتاب های دیگه خونده بودم.

[Caren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most fascinating books I have read in a long time. The author, a psychology prof at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, at a young age began to be interested in the ways in which inequality in a society affects its inhabitants. Growing up in rural Kentucky, when he was in fourth grade he became aware that he received free school lunches and hence was "poor". Until that point, he felt himself to be like his classmates; afterwards, he became very self-conscious and felt "less than". This sparked a lifelong quest to understand inequality. He clarifies that inequality should not be confused with poverty. Because humans are always comparing themselves to those around them, widening inequality wields just as much harm as does poverty. He notes that "In modern history, income inequality reached its highest point in the late 1920s, immediately before the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed---its highest point, that is, until today. We have now reached the same level of inequality that existed prior to the Great Depression." (page 23) He discusses the "veil of ignorance" study of the 20th-century political philosopher, John Rawls. The scenario for this study postulates that you have reached an unknown land which may be very equal or highly unequal. In which sort of place would you prefer to live? Logically, if you don't know where you would fit into this society, you would , of course, prefer it to be more egalitarian. This study was then expanded by Michael Norton and Dan Ariely by taking it out of the speculative realm, using actual stats. Dividing a population into quintiles, from poorest to most wealthy, they asked participants how the divisions lined up in the USA. Most people had no idea of the extent of divisions. They guessed that the top quintile had 59% of the nation's wealth; in reality, it is 84%. Then they asked participants what divisions constituted the ideal and would be a place they'd like to live. The numbers they gave matched up with Sweden, one of the most equal nations. In fact, 92% of Americans chose the wealth division of a place like Sweden (not knowing which country had these stats) rather than that of a country with the stats represented by the USA. People of all income levels made this choice. Living in an unequal society has all sorts of negative effects, including poor health outcomes. The differences even apply to more unequal states (such as California) when the state itself is relatively wealthy. In fact, interestingly, the levels of inequality in California match those of much poorer states, such as Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and West Virginia.
The author examined how levels of inequality influence political choices. He noted that conservatives and liberals differ in two basic ways. Conservatives wish to preserve tradition while liberals would like to see change in society (page 85). Secondly, conservatives are more accepting of inequality because they see it as being a reward for an individual's effort, talent, etc. Liberals tend to view inequality as a result of a flawed system rather than only as evidence of individual effort. In other words, conservatives focus on the individual; liberals focus on the system. To take this a step further, people who see the world as threatening and dangerous then prefer the safety of the status quo and are usually conservative. People who see the world as safer and as a place to explore tend to be liberal (page 95). Another interesting finding is that if you feel yourself to be better off than others in your society (whether this is true or just your perception), you are more likely to vote Republican. If you feel yourself to be poorer than others, you will probably vote Democrat. Also, the tendency for the rich to vote Republican is stronger in poorer states. (page 105) There is another rather unpleasant finding: if you see yourself as more successful than those around you, you will also see yourself as smarter and will think that those who disagree with you are just morons.
Not only do places with higher inequality have poorer health outcomes, people in these places have shorter lives. The reasons have to do with feelings of continual stress, causing inflammation and chronic disease. (This is one reason the USA, although a wealthy country, has shorter life expectancies than similar developed nations. In fact, life expectancy in the USA is quite a bit shorter than it is in Canada, a much more egalitarian country.)
Another discussion I found interesting was about studies which show that more unequal countries are more religious, regardless of their wealth. On a chart shown on page 149, you can see that the USA, while very high in average income, is still also high (unusually so) in religious belief (any belief---not any certain religion). There is a chapter devoted to the effects of racism on inequality, and one on how egalitarian workplaces differ from those which are very hierarchical. (In corporate structures which are very hierarchical, people taking direction endure far more stress than their managers do.) Pay inequality is also discussed, with special attention paid to the fact that the gap between what CEOs and rank-and-file workers make is widening to an alarming degree. He gave results from studies that showed that when people feel themselves to be treated unfairly, they often "even the score" by slacking off or by stealing. The ratio of CEO pay to ordinary worker pay is now 350 to 1! As the author says on page 195, "The extreme inequality seen today in CEO pay is likely to undermine job satisfaction, team performance, and product quality. It may inspire workers to slack off, steal, and sabotage. These tendencies have probably been kept in check, so far, by the general lack of awareness of how unequal the pay scales really are."
In a final chapter, he offers advice on how to handle the sort of unequal society in which we in the USA now live. He says, "The feelings of insecurity cued by poverty, together with easy us-versus-them divisions fostered by inequality, provoke us to embrace simplistic beliefs, extreme ideologies, and prejudices that provide easy answers, but do so by sabotaging the healthy functioning of civil society." (page 199) Further, "...the poor are driven by a more immediate and critical set of incentives. Their lives involve daily crises, which they attempt to cope with using the best short-term crisis management responses they have available. They have long since abandoned conforming to the economist's vision of rational responses to incentives and have replaced them with reactions aimed at keeping heads above water. Admonitions to start pulling up bootstraps ring hollow when you live in that world". (page 200) He continues on page 203: "The necessity of seriously confronting inequality and not just material poverty suggests the startling conclusion that we cannot simply grow our way out of our current predicament. Just as people often confuse inequality with poverty, they often confuse the goal of reducing inequality with the goal of fostering economic growth. But the findings on the critical role played by inequality itself---on health, decision making, political and social divisions---argue that economic growth is not sufficient." Page 206: Reducing inequality, similarly, has the potential to address scores of problems at once. But that requires moving away from seeing inequality through a moralizing lens. Instead, I believe we have to view inequality as a public health problem." Pages 207-8: "...greater inequality was linked to longer lives when comparing countries, as well as when comparing across the states. These statistics suggest that reducing income inequality from the rates of Kentucky or Louisiana to the rates of Iowa or Utah could transform the lives of millions of people."
Finally, he advises not comparing yourself with your neighbors or with those whom you perceive as better off. Rather, think of things that really matter to you and of your blessings. Old-fashioned advice, after all.
I heartily recommend this book. It will give you lots to think about and perhaps provide some insights on the world in which we live.

[Saber Memari · Rating 3 out of 5]

کتاب فوق، در مورد °فقر° و °نابرابری° هستش و تفاوت این دو رو با هم شرح میده. اینکه ما آدم‌ها دائما در افکارِ ناخودآگاهِ خود، بی‌رحمانه در حال مقایسه‌ی اجتماعیِ جایگاه خود با دیگران هستیم. اینکه چشم‌اندازهای اقتصادی ما، در این روزگار از ثروت والدین‌مان مشخص می‌شود. اینکه فقر همه‌ی جنبه‌های زندگیِ ما آدم‌ها را ویران می‌کند.
اینکه در کشورهای درحالِ توسعه مثل ایران، فقر مردم را از نیازهای اساسیِ بشر محروم می‌کند.

کتاب خوبی بود. راضی‌ام ازش شاید بعدن وقت کنم یه بار دیگه مرورش کنم.
البته امروز که این کتاب رو تموم کردم میگفتن دلار شده ۶۸هزار تومن. :))

[JJ Khodadadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

موضوع نابرابری در جهان و تاثیر آن بر زندگی افراد
مثال های زیاد و جالبی زده شده بود که بسیار تامل برانگیز بودند اما چندوقتی هست که حس می کنم خیلی از کتاب هایی که می خونم رو میشه در تعداد صفحات خیلی کمتر�� به چاپ رسوند که جذاب تر باشه!

[Laurelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Broken Ladder has convinced me that inequality is the most serious threat to civil society. Author Keith Payne describes the incredible scope of the issue, from feelings of injustice, self-destructive decision making, rising polarization, and inflations of status, with engaging prose, relevant psychology studies, and interesting personal stories. The book is compact, informative, and easily accessible.

The tensions that exist between the haves and have-nots in society have driven conflicts for centuries. As we enter into an era of nearly unfathomable income inequality (CEO salaries are 350 times larger than the average worker's!), understanding how this gap affects individuals, teams, communities, and nations is essential. I believe that The Broken Ladder should be required reading for all policy makers, leaders, and those working in both the public and private sector. So, basically everyone.

[Pawarut Jongsirirag · Rating 4 out of 5]

เมื่อพูดถึงความเหลื่อมล้ำ หนังสือส่วนใหญ่จะเป็นเเนวการเมือง ไม่ก็เศรษฐศาสตร์ ที่เล่าสาเหตุเเละผลกระทบของความเหลื่อมล้ำที่มีต่อสังคมหรือปัจเจก นานๆทีจะเจอเล่มนี้ที่เล่าในมุมมองของจิตวิทยาว่าความเหลื่อมล้ำมันส่งผลต่อวิธีคิดเเละการตัดสินใจของเรายังไงบ้าง

เริ่มเเรก ต้องเข้าใจก่อนว่า ความเหลื่อมล้ำ ในหนังสือเล่มนี้ ไม่ใช่เรื่องความยากจนที่วัดกันด้วยเม็ดเงิน เเต่คือ "ความรู้สึกว่าเราไม่เท่ากับคนอื่น" เป็นความรู้สึกที่เราเปรียบเทียบกับคนอื่นเเล้วรู้สึกว่าเราด้อยกว่าเขา ความรู้สึกนี่เองที่จะส่งผลต่อการคิดเเละตัดสินใจของเราในทุกด้าน ไม่ว่าการเมือง ศาสนา หรือ เเม้กระทั่งเรื่องเล็กๆน้อยๆในชีวิต

เมื่อหนังสือตั้งโจทก์เเบบนี้ ผมคิดว่ามันสามารถนำไปใช้ได้กับคนทุกคนเลยนะ ไม่ว่าเราจะทำงาน มีเงินมากเเค่ไหน เเต่ไอ้ความรู้สึกเปรียบเทียบว่าเราไม่เท่ากับคนอื่นนี่มันมีได้ทุกคน ทุกช่วงเวลา อาจจะรู้ตัวบ้างหรือไม่เคยสังเกตเลย เเต่มันมีอิทธิพลกับตัวเราอยู่ตลอดเวลา พออ่านเเล้วกลับมาลองคิดถึงตัวเองบ้าง ก็เอ้อ เราก็เคยคิดเเบบที่หนังสือมันบอกอยู่เหมือนกันนะ ความรู้สึกเเบบนี้มันทำงานเป็นสากลเฉยเลย

เเล้วไอความรู้สึกไม่เท่ากันเนี้ย มันจะยิ่งรุนเเรงขึ้นมากเมื่อเราอยู่ในสังคมที่ความเหลื่อมล้ำสูงๆ มองไปทางไหนมีเเต่คนที่มีมากกว่าเราเเบบพุ่งทะลุ เพอเรายิ่งรู้สึกไม่มีมากขึ้น เราก็คิดเเละตัดสินใจที่จะทำให้เรายิ่งไม่มีได้มากขึ้น ถ้าเรียบขั้นฐานะของคนคือบันได บันไดของคนที่รู้สึกว่าชีวิตไม่อาจสู้คนอื่นได้ ก็เหมือนกับบันไดหัก ที่ต่อให้พยายามปีนเเค่ไหนมันก็เป็นเรื่องยากมากที่จะขึ้นไปให้สูงกว่าเดิม

สิ่งที่ทำได้คือต้องรู้ว่าเรากำลังทำบันไดของตัวเองหักอยู่หรือเปล่า ค่อยๆซ่อมมันซะ เเละหันซ้ายขวาบอกคนอื่นที่บันไดก็หักเช่นกันให้ซ่อมมันซะ ขยายการบอกต่อนี้ไปเรื่อยๆจนถึงจุดที่สังคมมันเปลี่ยนเเปลง ความเหลื่อมล้ำมันลดลงเรื่อยๆ เมื่อถึงวันนั้นบันไดของทุกคนคงมีขั้นอยู่ครบ พร้อมที่ทุกคนจะปีนขึ้นไป ปีนขึ้นไปจนถึงที่สุดที่จะทำได้

[Joe Tullio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a quick read. It posits that inequality is at the root of many issues present in the societies of those countries that most exhibit it. Its basic thesis is compelling; the idea is that absolute wealth is not the key indicator. Rather, it is how people feel relative to one another that fosters feelings of inequality and unhealthy social comparisons.

It begins by demonstrating how people are naturally prone to compare themselves to one another. Through reporting on a variety of scientific experiments, it tries to drive home the point that feelings of relative poverty encourage us to think from a more short-term perspective, make riskier choices, and generally sacrifice longer-term well-being. This presents a mix of pretty interesting experiments, and others that I felt were a little too far afield (e.g., studies on mice) to really warrant inclusion in the book.

I found the thesis convincing, and I was probably most engaged with the chapter concerning how this behavior plays out in the business world. This section discusses how inequality in the workplace relates closely to perceived fairness, and when people feel unfairly treated, they tend to become less productive and in some cases work against the company. It suggested keeping hierarchies flatter and curtailing the now-enormous gap between employee and executive pay.

It concludes with good suggestions about how to cope with inequality in everyday life, such as remembering your good fortune relative to others, and focusing on your core values that likely have little to do with status. Overall I’d recommend it.

[Nuttawat Kalapat · Rating 3 out of 5]

กระชับดีนะ
ประเทืองปัญญามาก
ตรงที่เอาการทดลองและแนวคิดทางจิตวิทยา หรือแม้กระทั่งชีววิทยามาอธิบายเรื่องความเหลื่อมล้ำทางสังคมได้เข้าใจง่าย ลงลึกในหลายมิติ ตระหนักถึงผลของมัน
และทำให้คุณเข้าใจโลกมนุษย์ ธรรมชาติคน มากขึ้น

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author spends too much time on psych lab experiments for my taste, but otherwise this is a very well constructed argument on a single theme of how inequality is a root cause of all kinds of big problems, ranging from widespread illness to conspiracy theories.

[Siah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing. Well researched, and thought provoking. Challenged me on a few of my core beliefs. Highly recommended.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am likely not the ideal audience for this book, for two reasons:
1. I recognize inequality as an immutable fact of human existence and don’t believe it’s the role of society to ensure equal outcomes for all (just equal opportunities);
2. I recognize the role of luck (now called privilege) in my life and that of others, including both good and bad luck. Again, it’s not society’s role to correct for luck.

Additionally, there are two major issues with the book:
1. The author approaches the topic of inequality with a bias;
2. The author is a “social scientist,” a psychologist, and bases his conclusions on psychological studies. As someone with graduate degrees in “social sciences,” I recognize the limitations of the toolkit available to researchers.

With those caveats stated, I believe this book has merit for two reasons:
1. The author attempts to overcome his bias;
2. He offers solutions to the issues he identifies that are not entirely unrealistic (unrealistic assumptions are those that fall along the lines of “rich people are bad and we need to take their money and give it to the poor people, who are good, and everyone will be happy”).

As long as you know what you’re getting, this is an interesting book and worth the time.

[Felipe Gonçalves Marques · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book. It tackles the effect of inequality and tries to explain how it affects people behavior. It is really well-written and as subject, brings very interesting reflections that kinds of affect how we reason about several aspects of life such as public policies, moral justification of inequality (i.e. "that person is poor, because he is lazy") and social mobility.

The main take-aways are:

- Our behavior is not affected by how wealth/poor we are, but by how wealth/poor we are related to others.
- We unconsciously compare ourselves to others.
- When we notice this inequality and we are in the low end of the spectrum, we feel that we are in an uncontrolled and uncertainty environment, which makes we act more focus on short-term rewards instead of long-term interest (which is supported by experiments and explained by evolution).
- Racism has an effect similar to inequality, that is, the existence of racism is a factor that makes people feel the unequal, even when in material terms, they might be equal.
- The relation of wealth and happiness saturates after a value ($70k for USA), which means that gaining wealth after this point, does not improve happiness (on average).
- Inequality correlates better with crime-rate, low mobility, school dropout than poverty
- Thinking about purpose and personal values may have a blocking effect of inequality.
- People naturally have a sense of fairness and may avoid higher reward situations when they feel they are treated in an unfair way.

In resume, the book presents a very interesting scientific exploration of the inequality topic that makes me reflect about the way we confront society problems.

[Mehrsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an excellent consolidation of all the ways in which inequality (not just poverty) affects culture, decision-making, health, religious inclination, racism, and just general likelihood of being an asshole. Inequality makes us all worse off--not just those at the bottom. This book belongs on the shelf of every policymaker, teacher, and anyone interested in politics and culture. (along with Scarcity, which I kept thinking about while I was reading it). I get to be on a panel with Dr. Payne and I am so excited now!

[Tim Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just awesome.

[Puty]

Buku ini bukan buku baru, diterbitkan tahun 2017, dan direkomendasikan oleh Barack Obama. Subjudulnya cukup self-explanatory: How Inequality Affects The Way We Think, Live, and Die. Dalam 9 bab, buku ini mengurai bagaimana berada dalam kemiskinan atau merasa miskin akibat ketimpangan sosial mempengaruhi cara seseorang berpikir, bertindak, dan bagaimana akhirnya nasibnya akan ditentukan.

Di bagian awal Keith Payne menjelaskan dari ilmu perilaku (behavioral science), kenapa manusia akan selalu membandingkan diri dengan sesamanya (spoiler: status & insting bertahan hidup). Kemudian ia merunut bagaimana seseorang dalam kemiskinan, apalagi yang struktural dan berkepanjangan, cenderung membuat keputusan yang buruk yang kemudian menyebabkannya tertimpa kemalangan selanjutnya.

Pada bab-bab selanjutnya, buku ini membahas tentang ketimpangan sosial dan politik, angka harapan hidup, kepercayaan, rasisme, dan bagaimana ini kemudian ini berlaku di dunia kerja (karir, kebahagiaan di tempat kerja, kesenjangan upah, dst).

Walau hampir semua faktanya bukan hal yang baru pertama saya dengar, tapi saya menikmati penjelasannya dan merasa dapat banyak insight tentang studi / penelitian ilmu perilaku. Penjabarannya enak dibaca dan ditutup dengan rekomendasi yang wise juga relevan bahkan di level personal.

Saya rekomendasikan untuk yang sedang mulai tertarik membaca soal ketimpangan sosial dan behavioral science. Oh iya, tapi perlu dicatat, ini ditulis oleh laki-laki kulit putih asal Amerika Serikat. Bab bagian politik dan ketimpangan ras utamanya merepresentasikan AS. Masih banyak bagian dari kompleksitas ketimpangan yang belum tersentuh tapi buku ini bisa jadi pembuka topik untuk berpikir lebih kritis soal keadilan sosial.

[Bryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book came at the question of poverty and entitlement in our capitalist system from a single and unique angle: inequality. Each chapter addresses how inequality on its own either affects some measurable aspect of our lives, such as lifespan, or impacts our worldview, like our political affiliation and our degree and manner of religiosity.

The book succinctly addressed three things in particular that feel dead-on to me:
Re: Implicit bias: "This is the paradox of implicit bias, where actions are uncoupled from intentions, and we don't know where to aim our moral outrage."
Re: systemic failure or individual culpability: "When people debate between individual behavior and systemic factors as the source of inequality, as if the issue were an either-or debate, they are missing the point. Inequality affects our behavior, and differences in behavior can magnify inequality."
Re: the Trumpian phenomenon (in the context of death rates for middle-class white Americans being on the rise): "This demographic group is dying of violated expectations. Although high school-educated whites make more money on average than similarly educated blacks, the whites expect more because of their history of privilege."

[Maddie Fanos · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Inequality makes people feel poor and act poor, even when they're not."

Absolutely fantastic read. I knew I'd enjoy this book but I didn't think I would be so sucked in!! The author discusses the role of inequality in society and how it influences human psyche and behavior. He explores inequality in the context of socioeconomic status, race, politics, the workplace, communities, and even airplanes (for example, economy-class passengers who had to walk past first-class passengers to get to their comparatively inferior seats displayed more aggression during flights than passengers on planes with no first class cabin or "superior" seats). The whole book is filled with well-researched examples of how feeling unequal causes people to behave.

I'm so fascinated by the concept of relative deprivation and how no matter how much you have, it can always feel like not enough when you compare it to others. This book does such a wonderful job of explaining what that means for us and what we should do about it. I want everyone to read it!!

[Mint · Rating 4 out of 5]

อ่านจบแล้วรู้สึกว่าตัวเองฉลาดขึ้นนิดหน่อย 555

[Sofia Nunes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um dos melhores livros. Gostei da abordagem equilibrada sobre um dos problemas mais graves dos dias de hoje, a desigualdade. O autor conseguiu explicar de forma simples muitas das ideias que às vezes são tão difíceis de expressar neste mundo caótico e polarizado. Recomendo.

[Tejas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Effect of inequality i.e relative poverty on human behavior which is interesting by itself is explained with tons of research. This book is Western centric and hence the readers from developing countries might find uninteresting a bit because such readers would want to read about absolute poverty.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is worth the read as a quick, accessible primer on inequality. Payne provides an overview of many fascinating studies about how inequality affects individuals and society, showing that high levels of inequality are related to high levels of polarization, racial prejudice, unhappiness, and more. Extreme economic inequality is a common denominator for so many public policy issues, including education, health, crime, and housing.

There were even some fascinating studies that show that liberals and conservatives may have more in common than it's easy to think. As one example, in Chapter 9, I learned that when surveyed, people thought CEOs should ideally only be paid between 4-5 times the average worker; liberals leaned closer to 4 times, conservatives closer to 5 times. Participants estimated that in fact CEOs are paid around 30 times more, revealing gross ignorance of the much larger actual ratio of CEO to worker pay of 350:1.

Overall, I agree with Payne's conclusion that income inequality in the US should be treated like a public health issue, as this fits nicely into the medical anthropology perspective that I have. Yet, throughout the book, Payne tries to find common ground between theories of poverty that emphasize behavior and that emphasize environment. There is definitely a feedback loop between the two, and while I agree with most of what he says, I do feel like for as much as he discusses how poverty changes behavior, he doesn't spend enough time exploring how poverty constrains agency. This could be explained by looking at David Brady's (2019) article "Theories of the Causes of Poverty"... it seems to me that Payne discusses behaviorist and structuralist theories but doesn't spend enough time illustrating the difference between what Brady calls structuralist and political theories.

[Ali.n · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتاب با آزمایش‌ها و تحقیقات مختلف نشان می‌دهد که احساس فقر، احساس نداری، و احساس عقب‌افتادن از بقیه چه کاری با تصمیم‌گیری ما انسان‌ها می‌کند. بحث کتاب ورای این است که فقیر چرا بد تصمیم می‌گیرد، نویسنده ادعا می‌کند که "هر انسانی" به دلیل انسان بودنش وقتی در مضیقه قرار بگیرد همان‌طور تصمیم می‌گیرد که فقرا تصمیم می‌گیرند. احساس نداری و کمبود باعث کوته‌بینی و ریسک در تصمیمات می‌شود و این البته مختص به انسان هم نیست و در حیوانات هم دیده شده.

بخش جالب کتاب برای من آن‌جایی بود که از تاثیر احساس بی‌قدرتی مردم و نسبت‌شان با مسائل سیاسی صحبت می‌کرد. اینکه چطور احساس عدم قدرت (که این هم نوعی کمبود است و نابرابری) باعث می‌شود نظریات توطئه ترویج بیشتری پیدا کند و...

راهکارهای آخر کتاب برای کم کردن اثرات سوء مقایسه‌ی خودمان با دیگران (بالادستی‌ها) و تصمیم‌گیری بهتر هم بخش کاربردی کتاب بود که احتمالا در این زمانه‌ی تجمل‌زده‌ی اینستاگرامی به درد خیلی‌ها بخورد.

[Julian · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, this doesn't work as an audio book with all the references to charts and graphs that you obviously cannot see. You have to imagine scales, shades, etc. Nonsense.

Second, while I liked the premise and was interested in the general topic of inequality, I found the execution rather slow and repetitive. This is a dump of a summary of psychological studies. All of them interesting, but after a while they end up being tedious and boring.

[Bahareh · Rating 3 out of 5]

نردبان شکسته یه کتاب اجتماعیه پر از تحقیقات و ازمایش هایی که نتیجه گیری از هر کدوم خودش به اندازه ی یه کتاب ارزشمنده
از نظر من نابرابری دردیه که درمان نداره و به نظرم نخواهد داشت،بدتر میشه این داستان که بهتر نمیشه
ولی خب خوندن این کتاب از این نظر مهمه که باعث میشه خیلی مسائل و مقایسه ها از ضمیر ناخوداگاهت وارد ضمیر خودآگاهت بشن و
باعث نشه بالا پایین کردن اینستاگرام یهو مودتو عوض کنه
باعث نشه از سر حسادت به آدم ها از زندگی کردن عقب بمونی
—-
یه بخشی از کتاب که بیشتر از همه برام جذاب بود
راجع به این صحبت صحبت میکنه که ما دوست داریم در جهانی زندگی کنیم که قابل پیش بینیه و تحت کنترل ماست و هرج و مرجش رو میشه مهار کرد
برای همین مغز ما مدام به دنبال پیدا کردن الگوهاست
برای همینه این همه planner ها و to do list ها زیاد شدن
برای همینه به ابرا که نگاه میکنیم به دنبال کشف یه تصویریم
برای همینه قدیما ستاره ها رو به شکل صورت های فلکی ترسیم میکردن
اگه به مقاله های علمی و مسائل اجتماعی علاقه دارید بهتون پیشنهاد میکنم

[Wilde Sky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book discusses inequality and the effects that it has on individuals and society as a whole.

Some of the facts were thought provoking (such as lack of opportunity leading to risky behaviour), but the personal opinions could have been left out and some of the graphics were almost illegible.

Overall rating 3.5