Equality is good for everyone

The wider the gap between the rich and the poor the more problems rise in the societies.

Why is it that in developed countries like US, UK the problems of violance, obesity, teenage births, imprisonment rates, mental illness including drug and alcohol addiction are still very high? It appears that no matter how rich the country is, the level of crime and health problems do not get better. Among the thirty richest countries of the world the once with the smaller gap between the rich and the poor have less of those problems. Poverty in itself is not a set value, different standards of life are considered to be live by poor people in various country. In Africa and India, clean water and food are the essential needs, however in UK the one who lives below the government poverty line here can wash and buy food, and even might have a car. However, it is how people in the same society relate to each other makes them considered poor or rich. People are comparing each other's lifestyles and it is clear that the higher the social ladder and the more steps one needs to take to get from the bottom to the top the more frustration is caused by this inequality. With the way the media shows every aspect of the society and TV or computer with Internet access in almost every household in developed countries particularly emphasizing on consumerist and material values more than a lot it doesn't get better. In some of the rich countries like UK some people steal and kill other because of they want to get a Gucci something to get street credit and pass into VIP room, in developing countries (I hate the terms deviding the World into the First, Second and Third) people do the same for survival and a loaf of bread. In both cases people want are obviously not very happy whith where they stand in their society. In other rich countries like Japan, on another hand the level of crime and health problems is much less than in US, but the gap between the rich and the poor is much smaller. Rich people all over the world are generally happier, healthier and live longer than the poor. In the times of recession the gap gets bigger because poor people get more poor but it does nothing to the rich. There are many factors that play the role in why the gap exists and in bigger in certain countries than the others, certainly if we could look for solution to make the world more equal we would make a better living.