Health inside developed countries follows a gradient at every rung of socioeconomic status rather than a poor-versus-rich split: the super rich are healthier than the merely rich and the slightly richer middle class healthier than the slightly poorer, which the source reads as the primary inhibitor of societal health shifting from absolute to relative deprivation above a threshold of development.

Evidence 4 passages

• groundsUntitled source

  health within developed countries shows a clear gradient with measures of socioeconomic status. It affects every rung of the social ladder. The rich are significantly healthier than the poor. However, the super rich are healthier than the merely rich and the slightly richer middle class are healthier than the slightly worse of middle class. **This fact suggests that after a critical threshold of economic development the primary inhibiting factors of societal health shift from factors related to absolute deprivation (material scarcity) to relative deprivation (social disadvantage).

• groundsUntitled source

  The socioeconomic gradient in health does not distinguish merely be tween the poor and the rest of society, but affects every rung of the social ladder. Thus, people who own houses and have two cars are healthier than those who rent houses and have one car;15 adminis trative civil servants are healthier than executives;16 and people in the highest income group are healthier than those only slightly less well-off

• qualifiesUntitled source

  After the epidemiological transition, health remains closely associ ated with deprivation, but the relationship now is with relative rather than absolute deprivation. Health within developed coun tries continues to show a clear gradient with measures of socioeco nomic status.

• qualifiesUntitled source

  There is, however, a marked contrast between the well-ordered relationship between socioeconomic status and health within a country (as shown in Figure 4) and the lack of any clear relationship between socioeconomic status and health between countries (as shown in Figures 1 and 3).

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