The theft of well-being: a comment on Zunzunegui et al.

There is by now an enormous scientific literature on the relationship between wealth and health1. Over and over again, money heals and its absence cripples, wherever the goods and service that preserve health are commodities (and this is just about everywhere). In light of this overwhelming association, who could doubt that Spaniards relieved of their life’s savings or forced from their homes by unscrupulous bankers might report feeling badly? It is easy to see how having one’s home or savings swindled away might easily lead to outcomes such as depressive symptoms and lost sleep. From the small pilot study of Zunzunegui and colleagues comes some evidence that it is also associated with self-reported psychiabreak tric diagnoses, chronic pain and diminished physical health2. The breadth of these associations is impressive, but not surprising. It is one of those hypotheses that simply has to be true, at very least for the subjective and self-reported outcomes like those investigated by these authors. The predictability of these findings does not diminish their importance as a menace to the well-being of citizens in modern societies. History shows repeatedly that losses to institutional malfeasance are more catastrophic than to common crime, and that these perpetrators are less severely punished3. Recent developments in many countries have shown the importance of a systematic study of financial fraud and its consequences. For example, US-based Wells Fargo, the world’s second-largest bank, was the center of a financial fraud scandal last year in which its employees created over two million fake accounts. The bank settled for a $185 million fine, but this followed a series of previous fines and fraud scandals, including settlements for discrimination against minority borrowers, money laundering, deceitful fees, fraudulent mortgage practices and home appraisals, inflated insurance premiums, violation of credit card laws, and insider trading4. Similar stories of bank employees incentivized or coerced into defrauding customers have emerged in many other countries as well5, including Spain6.