Opinion (Jan Delhey, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, School of Humanities & Social Sciences, Jacobs University, Germany): “Are more equal societies ‘better’ societies? This article addresses the question as to whether and why income inequality lowers the degree of Europeans’ subjective well-being. While in broad international comparisons typically no clear-cut link between income inequality and (un)happiness exists, we can demonstrate that Europeans are somewhat less happy in more unequal places. We further discuss and empirically test three explanations as to why Europeans are inequality-averse, namely (dis)trust, status anxiety, and perceived conflicts.

“Each of these three potential mediators is hypothesized to be shaped by the extent of a nation’s income inequality, and in turn to result in lower subjective well-being. A multilevel mediation analysis with data from the European Quality of Life Survey 2007 for 30 countries reveals that distrust and status anxiety are important mediators of inequality aversion, whereas perceived conflict is not. We can further show that trust is the crucial mediator among affluent societies, whereas status anxiety is crucial among the less affluent societies.”

My Comment: Building trust, and therefore a sense of well being in society, is possible only with complete and constant human equality. This is possible only through the method of integral education and upbringing, the wisdom of connection, so that the Upper Light can change human nature.
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