Journal | Inequalities
Journal issue | The Globalisation of Social Polarisation Within Nations
Research Article | Inequalities: The Economic Foundation
Inequalities: The Economic Foundation
Abstract
Inequality takes many forms, but it starts with inequality of wealth and incomes. From that flows inequality is social mobility, life expectancy, educational attainment and even happiness. And the inequality of wealth and income is very extreme – both withing countries and between rich and poor countries. The gaps are hardly narrowing, if at all. Behind extreme inequality is the concentration of the bulk of wealth in the form of the ownership of productive capital in just a few adults in the world – no more 1% of 8bn people. That concentration has arisen because of the economic structure of the capitalist mode of production as it has spread across the world in the last century. While that basic structure remains in place, redistribution policies for income and wealth will be inadequate. A fundamental change in the social and economic formation of modern economies is required.
Submitted: Dec. 30, 2023 | Accepted: Jan. 29, 2024 | Published May 20, 2024 | Language: en
Keywords Economy • Wealth • Capital • Inequality • Income
Copyright © 2024 Michael Roberts. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/INQ/9191-9002/2024/01/001
