Michael Marmot: income inequality has gone too far

Submitted by Kathryn Busby on 11 February 2010

Michael Marmot's review of health inequalities Fair Society Healthy Lives is published today, with recommendations including progressive taxation to help reduce income inequality and improve health for everyone.

Listen to Michael Marmot on R4 Today Programme commenting:

...we do think that the amount of income inequality in society has gone too far, and we're supported in that view by the vast majority of the British population who also think income inequality has gone too far.... redistribution of income has to be part of [the solution]

A few interesting quotes from the report Fair Society Healthy Lives (page numbers refer to the Executive Summary):

Creating a fairer society is fundamental to improving the health of the whole population. [p10]

A debate about how to close the health gap has to be a debate about what sort of society people want. [p11]

The implications of the social gradient in health are profound. It is tempting to focus limited resources on those in most need. But we are all in need – all of us beneath the very best-off. If the focus were on the very bottom and social action were successful in improving the plight of the worst-off, what would happen to those just above the bottom, or at the median, who have worse health than those above them? All must be included in actions to create a fairer society. [p11]

Economic growth without reducing relative inequality will not reduce health inequalities. The economic growth of the last 30 years has not narrowed income inequalities. And although there is far more to inequality than just income, income is linked to life chances in a number of salient ways. As Amartya Sen has argued, income inequalities affect the lives people are able to lead. A fair society would give people more equal freedom to lead flourishing lives. [p12]

...... a more progressive tax system is needed, one that includes the direct and indirect incomes that make up a person’s income. [p22]