Inequalities as an element of economic pragmatism

Abstract

Inequality is a problem that affects virtually the entire modern world. The author reminds us that in 2000, the UN adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and then, in 2015, specified the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to guide the world’s development in order to close the gaps between and within countries.
The author discusses the most important conclusions on the effects of inequality from the work of the Joseph E. Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi Commission, the works of Stiglitz and Piketty. He points out that income and wealth inequalities began to grow in the US and European countries from the early 1980s, when the expansion of neoliberal ideology took place and countries began to withdraw tax progression mechanisms in tax policy. These inequalities are therefore not natural, as conservatives believe, they stem from ideology – and here he agrees with Piketty.

However, he points out that it does not mean that inequality should be abolished altogether and be replaced by equality, as he argues that the level of inequality should stabilise at some level resulting from a certain rationality. He shows that certain principles of inequality are universal and have been applied since antiquity, and advocates for principles of inequality pragmatism. The need is not for an equality of income and asset status but for the chances of each person being at an appropriate level within pragmatic, rational and just rules of inequality. He points out that it is through inequality that the natural world develops and, in fact, inequality needs the economy both at national and global levels, as it is needed for creative development. The author urges: Let us therefore seek rational rules of inequality.