“A Philosophical
Perspective on the Relative Income Hypothesis Debate”
Gopal Sreenivasan
University of Toronto
Abstract
It is widely agreed that individual income has a significant positive effect on individual life expectancy. Some population health researchers—most notably, Richard Wilkinson—contend, more specifically, that an individual’s income relative to others in his or her society (also) has a significant positive effect on life expectancy. This position is rather controversial, empirically speaking, and has sparked a vigorous debate. I shall briefly review this debate and then argue that, morally speaking, the issue is something of a red herring. This is especially clear, I shall also claim, if we set aside a philosophically dubious assumption that has structured the population health debate.