&gt; Poverty is the metric that should be focused on, not inequality<p>No. Inequality <i>is</i> the problem. Poverty has nowhere near the same damaging effect.<p>This book is essential reading on the topic:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Spirit-Level-Equality-Societies-Stronger&#x2F;dp&#x2F;1608193411&#x2F;ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1452269566&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=spirit+level" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Spirit-Level-Equality-Societies-Strong...</a><p>The authors use two test-beds: a comparison of countries around the world and a comparison of states within the US. With these, they show that with overall wealth held constant, it&#x27;s the larger inequality that causes more social problems.<p>For example, the UK and Japan have roughly equal GDP and similar average incomes, but Japan is less unequal. On almost any measure you might choose of how well a society is doing, Japan is better. Mental health, drug use, teen pregnancy, violence, divorce, abuse, the whole lot. The same goes across all of the states and countries they looked at.<p>The sheer scale of the evidence is overwhelming. It&#x27;s very rare in the social sciences for literally hundreds of studies to point to the same broad trend across so many different parts of the world.<p>Their work is a revolution as it overturns the common assumption which you expressed that poverty is the problem.