Can inequality be solved or is it a natural human state?

News: Recently, Oxfam revealed that India’s richest 10% had 45% of Indian wealth, while the bottom half had only 6%.

This article says, even if inequality is a natural consequence, it is evil. There is no need to declare it as sacred. Also, money can never be the correct measure of inequality.

Is inequality a natural consequence of human nature?

There are different arguments given for the reason behind inequality:

First, some experts argue that social inequality began with the invention of mass production i.e. rise of capitalism.

Second, others argue that social inequality is not caused by capitalism, and it is fundamental to human nature, even before the Industrial Revolution.

What should be the criterion to measure poverty and inequality?

Some experts argue that poor of today have much better living standards, compared to the Mughal era. But it is not a correct perception of poverty. Deprivation today must be measured by the availability of wealth and facilities to rich people of present.

Thus, the Indian policy makers’ notion of ‘basic necessities’ is false. The fact is that people don’t live to just eat starch and sugar. Humans invented so many things for fun and comfort and whenever something improves lives, its denial to the majority becomes one of the new meanings of poverty.

What is the way forward?

First, we need to stop using money as a measure. Money is so easy to measure that many get conditioned to consider themselves lesser people than some.

Second, we also need to persuade people to see the truth that money is just one of the many things that matter. For example, happiness indices.

Source: This post is based on the article “Can inequality be solved or is it a natural human state?” published in Live Mint on 24th Jan 2022.