Yellow Canaries and Middle-Aged White Men

Startling new data from the National Academy of Sciences suggest that extreme inequality may be exacting a much steeper price — on our health — than we’ve up to now expected.

Two Irrepressible Egalitarian Spirits

British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett have changed how the world thinks about economic inequality — and they have a wealth of new insights to share. Read the complete Too Much interview . . .

Why Do Americans Live Lives So Short?

To protect our health, we’ve learned to have our ‘vital signs’ taken. But no visit to a doctor’s office can tell us the vital signs that determine where on earth people can expect to live the longest lives. Read more . . .

Behind Super-Sized Sodas, a Deeper Danger

Sugary soft drinks, as Michael Bloomberg reminds us, do our nation no good. But if we really want to narrow our waistbands, we’re going to have to narrow the income gaps that divide us.

Is Our Health Care Debate Just a Sideshow?

We obsess over health care in the United States, because we all want to be healthy. In the process, new evidence suggests, we’re ignoring the social dynamics that actually determine our health.

Why Greater Equality Makes Us Stronger

By every measure that matters, relatively equal nations outperform nations where income and wealth concentrate at the top. The best telling of that story.

Move Over, Climate Change Deniers

Make room for a new right-wing assault on scientific research. In the cross-hairs this time: the massive epidemiological evidence on inequality’s horrific toll on our health and overall well-being.

Health Care Reform’s Hidden Tax Gem

The new health care reform legislation that President Obama has signed into law takes a little-noticed but precedent-setting swipe at executive pay excess.

Why Health Care Matters Less than We Think

The British already have universal health care. So why do average life expectancies in the UK vary so dramatically by neighborhood? A new UK blue-ribbon commission has some answers to questions that Americans ought to be asking.

Of Flat Tax, Fat Tax, and ‘Fat Cats’

A health care reform surtax on the rich makes great budget sense — and even more sense, over the long haul, for our actual health.