The ‘Great Gatsby Curve¹‘ is a great visual that highlights the importance of equal access to quality education, healthcare, and safe environments to tackle inequality. Inequality is the root cause of many of our societal problems like increased violence, mental illness, and low social mobility.

Scandinavian countries have come out on top due to their Nordic Model which provides strong social safety nets when compared to the United States, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

¹Countries with greater income inequality have less intergenerational earning mobility (i.e., low-income populations in countries with low inequality have better odds of shifting to higher income brackets than their parents). It’s called the Great Gatsby Curve (It’s actually a line) because of Jay Gatsby’s rise from a poor farming background to mixing with the mega-rich in F Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel.

Sources

Curtin, Donal. “Meet The Great Gatsby Curve”, Acuity Magazine June-July 2022