Healthier, Wealthier, but also More Unequal
Angus Deaton is a British-American economist and a winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics. He is a professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University. Angus’s decades of research and his book — The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality — enables readers to understand how the world has grown healthier, wealthier, but also more unequal over the past two and half centuries.
The book contains three parts. Part one of the book is about life and death. According to Angus, “Life is better now than at almost any time in history. More people are richer and fewer people live in dire poverty. Lives are longer and parents no longer routinely watch a quarter of their children die.” The author also claims that globalization has also made the world unequal. While the rich have been presented with new opportunities for getting healthier and richer, the poor of the world have gained little. Angus’s data research has shown some parts of the world experienced sustained progress, widening the gaps and setting the stage for today’s disproportionately unequal world.
Part two of the book is on money which Angus refers to as material well-being. The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment brought us sustained improvements in material well-being. Yet science is under attack from religious fundamentalists in many places around the world, including the United States. Material inequality has recently increased within many countries, especially wealthy ones. The book’s rich historical and geographical context adds to the power of this message. Angus gives particular attention to the United States, making a strong case for the extent of the country’s inequality and its political problems. The book narrates the successes of antibiotics, pest control, vaccinations, clean water, as well as the outbreak of disastrous famines and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The last part of the book — Help: How To Help Those Left Behind — is controversial. Angus bluntly calls foreign aid an illusion. Many examples of the ineffectiveness of foreign aid are mentioned in the book. Angus opines that foreign aid only makes the inequality issue worse. Readers will have to make their own judgement call on this topic. I believe there are many success stories on effective foreign aid. Politics and aid distribution do matter. Angus closes the book with his opinion that poor countries will not benefit from foreign aid as those countries lack the infrastructure — government capacity, a functioning legal and tax system, and security of property rights — that is necessary for growth to occur.
The book successfully demonstrates how fundamental the Great Escape was for many countries but leaves the reader uncertain about how other countries will follow. Income inequality in rich countries, health problems in China and in the United States or H.I.V. in Africa are all used to deliver the author’s central message on both growth and inequality. Angus expects those setbacks to be overcome in the future, as they have been in the past. "The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality" is truly an elegant exploration.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Escape-Health-Origins-Inequality/dp/0691165629