Weren’t the founders equally concerned with government and aristocratic power? How is it that in America today we are all, Left and Right, still concerned about government but not so much the power of the American aristocratic class, our super rich?

This thought comes in reaction to a Newsbusters critique (such as it is, where’s the beef?) of Nicholas Kristof’s New Years Day column, Equality, a True Soul Food:

There’s growing evidence that the toll of our stunning inequality is not just economic but also is a melancholy of the soul. The upshot appears to be high rates of violent crime, high narcotics use, high teenage birthrates and even high rates of heart disease.

That’s the argument of an important book by two distinguished British epidemiologists, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. They argue that gross inequality tears at the human psyche, creating anxiety, distrust and an array of mental and physical ailments — and they cite mountains of data to support their argument.

“If you fail to avoid high inequality, you will need more prisons and more police,” they assert. “You will have to deal with higher rates of mental illness, drug abuse and every other kind of problem.” They explore these issues in their book, “The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.”

Previously from me on The Spirit Level here, here, here and here.