"Poverty has decreased in the last 25 years by 900 million people, but inequality between social groups has increased and is expected to grow further. This could jeopardize peace. This is what Stefano Zamagni, professor at the University of Bologna and Johns Hopkins University in Bologna (Italy), and member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace committee , said at the University of Navarra. The expert gave the III ICS Lecture on Humanities and Social Sciences of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS).

Professor Zamagni showed with an example that the gap between social groups is widening: "35 years ago, the comparison between the salary of the highest and lowest earners in an American business was 1 to 100, but today it is 1 to 700. In Spain it can be 1 to 300 or 400.

"Inequality is more dangerous than poverty," he emphasized. "It is difficult for the poor in the strict sense to start a war, but those who suffer inequality without becoming poor can become violent against a society incapable of redistributing wealth fairly."

In the case of Europe, he stressed that the inequalities until now were compensated by the welfare state, but in his opinion "this is economically unsustainable" and politicians "must think about future generations instead of the next elections". "The crisis of the welfare state has been accentuated and is very much connected with violence and with the rejection of refugees and immigrants," he added. 

With regard to the massive arrival of these two groups, he recalled that it is an issue "more important than in the past" because the problem is connected to political and religious factors, not only to economic and labor aspects. "Syrians are not poor: they come to Europe because their homes have been destroyed. And in some African countries, Catholics are fleeing because they are persecuted for their faith."

From agreement with Professor Zamagni,the solutions must not come from the nations, but from Europe as a whole: "Each State thinks in itself and in isolation from the rest. This will only increase inequalities and violence".

report World Happiness 2016

On the other hand, he referred to report World Happiness 2016, presented last week by the UN, which indicates that the happiest countries in the world are Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway. The expert said that the results are not consistent with other data as the high levels of suicides and divorces that occur in those countries, while in the Mediterranean nations, which occupy much lower positions in the ranking, there are figures that show more life satisfaction.

"The problem is that the indicators on which they are based were introduced by Anglo-Saxons, who have a very utilitarian perspective. But if we recover the Aristotelian approach , which understands happiness as an activity in line with virtue, we can conclude that to achieve it, money is not necessary".

In this regard, he recalled a study from the 1970s that revealed that as per capita income increased, so did happiness, but only up to a certain point, $22,000. "Beyond that figure, with an increase in income, happiness not only does not grow, but decreases," he concluded.