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laurendeen's review against another edition
5.0
The Broken Ladder is a nonfiction book detailing the consequences of inequality. It's very well written and easy to understand, even if you aren't familiar with the more technical aspects. The one drawback is that this book seems to be much more wide than it is deep - there are tons of examples, but Payne doesn't really go into much detail about why inequality causes these issues. He definitely mentions it throughout the book, but I would have liked more detail about the causality.
hollandvk's review against another edition
3.0
While I find the ideas presented in the book fascinating, it reads like a dump of psychological surveys. Some are quite relevant, while other explanations seem a bit of a stretch from the main topic. Also, not the best as an audiobook as several figures are referenced.
jastoryg's review against another edition
2.0
Arguments weren’t terribly compelling. Not terribly enlightening. I wanted to get on board with his premise but he threw too many arguments out there without taking the time to back them up. Which left me feeling unconvinced and unchanged.
kski83's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Every American should read this book.
qtea's review against another edition
5.0
A great overview on the psychological implications of inequality. Inequality makes people feel poor and act poor, even if they are not. What was new to me were the descriptions about how experienced status decreases can lead to increased implicit bias.
davidgilani's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this - interesting take on the ways in which it's not just the existence of inequality, but the perceptions of the existence of inequality that causes so many of the issues in our society. The book has a nice flow to it through the way the different chapters are structured... and it makes good use of data about the way the world is / was, in addition to calling on a wider variety of scientific papers and studies that have looked at the issues of inequality.
bootman's review against another edition
5.0
Many books that discuss inequality discuss it from a moral and ethical point of view, but this was by far the best book I've read that really looked at it from all angles. Keith Payne has been studying inequality for years, and this book focuses on the psychology of inequality. There's a huge misconception that lower-class people make bad decisions for bad reasons, but when you understand the psychology, you see how they are forced into what Payne calls the "live fast and die young" approach.
The Broken Ladder is an absolute must-read because it really focuses on how many of our issues come from our relative status. When you have a better understanding of that, you see that there are certain things we can do to improve our happiness and well-being now as we also fight to change how our society runs. This book reminded me of the documentary Happy, which started out with the story of one of the happiest people on Earth, but the kicker was that he and his family basically live in poverty. The Broken Ladder offers a ton of societal as well as individual solutions, and I can't recommend it enough.
The Broken Ladder is an absolute must-read because it really focuses on how many of our issues come from our relative status. When you have a better understanding of that, you see that there are certain things we can do to improve our happiness and well-being now as we also fight to change how our society runs. This book reminded me of the documentary Happy, which started out with the story of one of the happiest people on Earth, but the kicker was that he and his family basically live in poverty. The Broken Ladder offers a ton of societal as well as individual solutions, and I can't recommend it enough.
jennylimmy's review against another edition
3.0
This feels like a companion piece to Scarcity (Shafir, Mullainathan 2013), which explores the cognitive costs of poverty. The Broken Ladder clarifies that absolute need is not the only problem: feelings of relative need can take a cognitive toll as well. However, this book does not hold to the high standard of Scarcity: some of the studies the author mentions are sloppy (not even blind!), and he does not do much to clarify correlation v. causation.
Nonetheless, the book’s overall argument is convincing, though somewhat obvious: if inequality were reduced in the U.S., everyone would probably be better off.
Nonetheless, the book’s overall argument is convincing, though somewhat obvious: if inequality were reduced in the U.S., everyone would probably be better off.