Oliver James: What Fun!

Oliver James has a piece over at CiF which mentions that little piece I did on his theory about Affluenza. He says:

Daniel Finkelstein from the Times and Tim Worstall state that there is no connection between national inequality and mental illness, contrary to my evidence. But my claims concern this relationship in developed nations. Obviously if, as they do, you add in developing nations such as Nigeria, it is a different matter - my arguments regarding affluenza apply to developed nations. On top of that, wilfully or because they have not read the book closely enough, they misrepresent my argument as being based on inequality. Rather, my point is that selfish capitalism (of which inequality is a consequence) is what is doing our heads in.

Worth noting that I have not (and shall not be) read his book. I went purely on the article he had in The Guardian where he said:

The US is by some margin the most mentally ill nation, with 26.4% having suffered in those 12 months. This is six times the prevalence of Shanghai or Nigeria, a huge discrepancy. Again, genes do not explain it - studies show that when Nigerians move to America, within a few generations they develop American prevalences.

It was in fact Oliver James who made the comparisons between developing countries and developed ones. It may well be that his main theory doesn't do so, but in the piece under discussion he certainly does mention it  as one of his supporting pieces of evidence. Further, here's my conclusion from this:

Denmark does have a low one by international standards, 0.247; the UK 0.36, the US 0.408. However, in a small problem for James, that for China is 0.447 and that for Nigeria is 0.506 (all World Bank figures, 2004).

So if we leave aside the Danish result (what we might call the bigotry of low expectations, if that phrase were not already used to describe our education system), the actual evidence that James presents shows us that increased inequality makes us happier. We in the English-speaking nations are, in fact, too egalitarian to be truly happy.

Contrary to his desire, therefore, James has shown that we should reduce redistribution, take the shackles off the capitalist juggernaut and find greater happiness in admiring the rich and successful from our hovels.

Far from my saying that there is no connection between national inequality and mental illness I actually state that there is one, and that it works the other way around to James' contention.

(No, not even I actually believe that, there is an element of satire there for I am only taking the evidence James himself provides and taking it to its logocal conclusion.)

I'm really not sure that I misrepresent his argument either:

...they misrepresent my argument as being based on inequality. Rather, my point is that selfish capitalism (of which inequality is a consequence) is what is doing our heads in.

I actually say:

What makes us all so depressed is all this liberal capitalism, the market system that showers us with cornucopian amounts of wealth and choice. At least, that’s the remarkable claim in the book Affluenza by the clinical psychologist Oliver James.

That's exactly what he said, isn't it?

Daniel Finkelstein responds here.