Litmus Test?

I'm not 100% positive, but overall I'm inclined to agree with Bellah & co. that the way in which a society deals with poverty and the distribution of wealth is the most important test of how healthy that society is. The healthiest communities are those with the smallest amounts of inequality. As the gap between the rich and poor increases, as it has in the United States, a community becomes less healthy. The problem with trying to create equality in order to create a healthy society is that those in power (responsible for creating an equal society) are often unwilling to give up power. Also, preventing poverty requires fairly high taxation for good social services to care for the elderly, mentally and physically disabled people, etc.

In a healthy community, people care about each other and are willing to make some sacrifices so that no one has to suffer. The other extreme is a community in which the few people with power care only about keeping their power and gaining more, no matter how much everyone else has to suffer for it. I'm not sure that everyone would agree that the former is the definition of a healthy community (especially if they think humans are inherently selfish) but the latter is undoubtedly unhealthy. A community that does not care about the members of the community who are suffering in poverty cannot be a true community.