Pregledni rad
"NEw INEQUALITY" – SOURCES AND ILL EFFECTS OF GROWING PROPRIETARY AND INCOME INEQUALITY
Rajko Odobaša
; Pravni fakultet Sveučilišta J. J. Strossmayera u Osijeku
Sažetak
The paper researches into ideological-political and economic sources of the thirty-year long intensification of inequality in wealth and income distribution in the most developed Western societies. In spite of the fact that the basis of all developed societies includes economic inequality Western societies deliberately rejected and succeeded in decreasing extreme proprietary and income inequality until late 1970s. As neoliberal development paradigms have gained the upper hand and started to spread since early 1980s the portion of the most well-off in income and property started to increase while earnings of the middle and poorer classes were stagnant or decreased. In a number of countries the well-off almost entirely appropriated economic and other benefits from economic progress while economic growth had no positive or just minimum effect on living standard of the majority members of the society. Growing and excessive economic inequality causes greater and dangerous differences in education, health, social inclusion and life expectancy. Current tendency of rapid improvement of the status of the well-off minority at the expense of the growing poor majority has been named „new inequality” although it is basically about reversion to severe class division characteristic of nineteenth century society. Similarly, the societies of today have again polarised socially and antagonised internally. Small percentage of the well-off population tends to hold its status and uses its powers to submit all social dimensions, flow of thoughts and developmental directions to themselves. The conclusion of this paper is that widening of the proprietary, income and social gap caused first of all by world view and politics have destroyed social cohesion and democracy, increased social insecurity, resulted in social deviations and lead to financial and economic crises and inefficiency. By destroying economic basis of unregulated free market capitalism the economic inequality and other issues related to distribution shall become the most important political issues in the decades to follow.
Ključne riječi
increasing inequality; neoliberalism; polarized society; social deviation; economic crises
Hrčak ID:
121040
URI
Datum izdavanja:
30.8.2012.
Posjeta: 3.786 *