Hi All,
Inequality has been a phenomenon that has been plaguing mankind time immemorial. It has crystallized into violent revolutions in the past and is threatening civil society in many countries today. India seems to be no exception to this trend. Our politicians seem to be hell bent on abolishing inequality, at least on paper. Great thinkers rue the fact that it still exist in our society and keep warning us on the continuance of inequality in civil society.
Though i couldnt agree more with the above mentioned people for the need of eliminating inequality, i ponder what a “inequality-less” society will be like. Why would our house maids work for us if they had the same amount of resources, opportunities as us. Why would we be working for our present employers if we have what they already possess. As you probably would agree with me, it is the inequality,in a perverse way, that keeps society ticking.
Combine that with human desire for continual improvement, we have a human populace that works for each other makes us all interdependent and paving the way for a more unified society. All well and good unless you are at the receiving end of the inequality you would say. Again i couldnt agree more.
But what if even at the receiving end, people had reasonable access to education, employment, affordable housing and nutrition. Would that kind of inequality be such a bad thing after all? So what if a small minority among us are filthily rich and probably having earnings multiple times as the rest of the population as long as the majority can survive and sustain better modest lifestyles.
Instead of viewing inequality as an evil, we should probably have fresher perspectives on this issue.
4 comments:
If you eliminate inequality, it means you're giving all the people a chance to do the same thing. But it's only a chance - it has to be taken up and used. Some will do it better than the other and after sometime a new inequality situation might arise. In my opinion, perfect equality could be there only when everyone has the same potential/interest/commitment or whatever it takes to push things to the maximum.
@ sriram...so u do agree that inequality cannot be eliminated from our society..?
Yes. I think so. Human nature.
Excellent article, great points raised. Hopefully, populist left wing liberal politicians understand the effectiveness of free market capitalism from this article. Ever since Independance,India has most of the time voted for the secular Congress party, which always seems keen on to create a utopian society, where everyone is equal, through state intervention. Would there be a rich poor gap because of the free market capitalist system. The answer is of course of there would be one .But this does not in any way imply, that the life of the poor would be miserable. Furthermore, opportunities are plenty for those who want to rise above their circumstances of birth. Capitalism is much better than Socialism which creates a society where everyone is equally miserable.
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