"Society prepares the crime

These words written by Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian statistician, in 1835

and went on with ........... and the guilty person is only the instrument"

Today these words arouse little or no surprise

Indeed most governments throw money at child poverty, improving education and health programs

All designed to alleviate the situation of the poorest in society

And most have been singularly unsuccessful in ending their particular problem

New research now shows that the reason they fail is that they view each problem in isolation

Instead of looking at the shared root cause

The interesting thing here is that it is not poverty per se but inequality that perpetuates the situation

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This well documented research shows that inequality is the real villain

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The research is meticulous and shows clearly that countries where incomes are more evenly distributed their citizens live longer and have lower rates of obesity

Delinquency, depression and teenage pregnancy are also lower

Than in richer countries where the wealth is more concentrated

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Sweden and Japan are examples of two countries where high taxes on the rich and smaller differentials in pay are well known

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There is more equality in their societies

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What is now also becoming clearly understood is that many of the rich around the world got that way by stealing or theft

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Current times are throwing greed and corruption into the spotlight as never before in country after country

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Where this is not being exposed by the media, because they may not, it is however well known to their citizens who have no way of removing the elite who abuse their positions of wealth and power

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This now leads us to understand that their accumulation of wealth has more subtle and serious effects on society, way beyond the cost of the millions and billions they have stolen

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Subtle and dangerous effects that need addressing

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This research is new and leads us again to say that the whole idea of societies geared to continual economic growth is passe

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It has to be a nonsense that people steal billions to buy usually useless assets and lifestyles thereby perpetuating the poverty of so many hundreds of millions of people

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Humanity cannot afford to have greed as its only enshrined model of admiration

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Perpetual economic growth as a model for any society also needs challenging given the ongoing harm it causes

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Over and over we are told of the benefits that economic growth brings

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Time that we reexamined these claims against the harm growth and greed create