Reading this ambitious book review of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, written by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, I can’t help but to share the insight that it seems that the more egalitarian a society (be it a nation-state or a state within a nation), the more trash gets recycled by its people. Adding this to the list of the many trashtastic outcomes of redistribution of wealth.
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everydaytrash 
Monday, October 26, 2009 at 1:47 pm |
Unlike The Spirit Level you show no data to support your claim. On what basis therfore do you make this claim? Gut feel?
Monday, October 26, 2009 at 3:16 pm |
Nah, I take it from the book review itself, its mentioned very briefly. Also, my gut feeling would be that in more equal societies people would care more for each other and the environment they share, but my gut feeling could be wrong. In any case, I would say that even with data support (which is all over The Spirit Level), there are contexts in which the analysis isn’t fully (or at all) applicable.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 3:03 am |
The Democratic Trash theory. I like it. Very Kant.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 6:42 pm |
It makes sense to me… recycling isn’t always in the nature of a consumer-driven capitalistic market. Sometimes it’s easier to just throw everything away to get ahead. I saw Jannise Ray talk a few days ago and her big claim was a capitalistic system is always going to need more of itself to support itself thus not geared towards sustainability.
We’re going to need sustainability eventually, but then it will be too late.
Friday, May 6, 2011 at 11:25 am |
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