Evidence abounds that large inequalities undermine community life, reduces trust among citizens, and increases violence. In one major study from data collected over 30 years [by the epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett in their book: The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger] the most consistent predictor of mental illness, infant mortality, educational achievements, teenage births, homicides, and incarceration, is economic inequality. And as Nobel Laureate Kenneth Arrow has written, “Vast inequalities of income weakens a society’s sense of mutual concern…The sense that we are all members of the social order is vital to the meaning of civilization.”
thinkahol * on 12 Oct 11Dada Pranakrsnananda is a yogic monk of Ananda Marga and a social activist. He is a member of the #Occupy Wall Street movement and was one of the first arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge on October 1st. In this exclusive video, Dada shares his unique experience of being arrested and his concern that the focus has shifted to the conflict between the movement and NYPD, when it should it should remain on the injustice of corporate greed and inequity of wealth in society.