More than 200 years ago, William Wordsworth illustrated in his sonnet “The world is too much with us” how the advancement of the Industrial Revolution was leaving too many people behind. The world is once again at a vital turning point, facing numerous linked challenges. The cost-of-living and climate crises, widening inequities, and increasing pressures on health and welfare services, are leaving more and more of us behind.
Pressure is growing and time is running out to meet the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, particularly SDG 10: reduced inequalities. The world’s leading economists, in a letter to the UN Secretary-General and the World Bank Group President have called for urgent action as “extreme poverty and extreme wealth have risen sharply and simultaneously for the first time in 25 years.”1
New analysis2 across the WHO European Region highlights an inextricable link between increasing health and social inequities. The ever increasing number of people living insecure lives is leading to a widening trust gap with more disadvantaged groups much less likely to trust other people and institutions, including government, compared to more prosperous groups. The analysis shows that when people do not feel the benefit of government policies—including those that protect health—yet see others benefiting, they increasingly turn away from government and other public entities and institutions.
“Transforming the Health and Social Equity Landscape”2 points to dramatic falls in mental health of our young people, many …