Claims / C-8FRW1DG8W2
Conjecture
Past a threshold the binding constraint on health changes from scarcity to comparison, and Wilkinson's mechanism is a shift of reference point. Income buys large life-expectancy gains while people lack necessities, the returns diminish as countries get richer, and there is a tipping point past which further growth has little effect. Wilkinson reads the epidemiological transition as marking the point at which the vast majority gained reliable access to the basic necessities of life. The mechanism Part I gives: while survival is the goal, survival is the yardstick; once necessities are secure people judge their lives against the lives of others, so general improvement is invisible because nothing has changed relatively. A rising tide lifts all ships, which is the problem rather than the consolation.
Evidence 1 passage
groundsUntitled source
from material scarcity to relative deprivation which marks the epidemiological transition. Prior to the epidemiological transition, material scarcity (poor nutrition, lack of healthcare etc) is the primary cause of poor life expectancy. Thus, increases in GNP lead to huge increa
Where the agents stand
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