Download or read book The Evolution of Inequality written by Manus I. Midlarsky and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book studies the structural inequalities between states as they evolve and influence the political process, analyzing various forms of political violence, the dissolution of states, and the sources of cooperation between states. The ultimate genesis of democracy is shown to be a consequence of the processes detailed in the book.
Download or read book Inequality and Evolution written by Charles L. Ladner and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1976, there were 38 countries, comprising nearly 50% of the world’s population that self-identified as socialist states, yet by 1991, only one remained. In 1976, the annual GDP per capita of the 38 socialist countries (in inflation adjusted dollars) averaged approximately $5 thousand. By 1990 it had grown to about $8 thousand. During that same period, the GDP per capita, in comparable numbers, for the United States grew from $24 thousand to $36 thousand. The socialist countries never grew their per capita income to more than 22% of the United States. Even China, which today has an economy almost as large as the United States, never saw its per capita GDP grow beyond $2 thousand per year during the twenty-eight year period as a socialist state under Mao Zedong. But, after the death of Mao, China converted its economy to the capitalist model with spectacular success, lifting a billion people out of poverty and challenging the United States for worldwide economic supremacy-an outcome that would have been unthinkable under socialism. Why has capitalism proven to be such an extraordinary success and socialism such a miserable failure? Charles Ladner argues that the success or failure of economic systems can be traced to the degree to which such systems are congruent with the primal force of evolutionary natural selection. This is the most fundamental need of every living thing to survive and reproduce. He encapsulate these forces into the term: selfishness. Capitalism, he finds, is grounded in such selfishness or self-interest, and therefore is fully congruent with the biological needs which provide the aspirational motivation that cause capitalism at all times and in every place, to be successful. Socialism, on other hand, requires and cannot function without, authoritarian rule to suppress expressions of self-interest. Its operation at the level of the state, serves to frustrate the biological needs and thereby will always produce poverty and failure. The historical record, he says, categorically demonstrates this. Capitalism, however, has a fatal flaw, and that is its inability to restrain the expression of selfishness, which ultimately leads to such extremes of wealth and income inequality that the system can self-destruct. In the final chapters, Ladner offers possible remedies for the United States, which he believes is already in the very early stages of such self-destruction.
Download or read book Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures written by Christopher D. Carroll and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-06-16 with total page 517 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robust and reliable measures of consumer expenditures are essential for analyzing aggregate economic activity and for measuring differences in household circumstances. Many countries, including the United States, are embarking on ambitious projects to redesign surveys of consumer expenditures, with the goal of better capturing economic heterogeneity. This is an appropriate time to examine the way consumer expenditures are currently measured, and the challenges and opportunities that alternative approaches might present. Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures begins with a comprehensive review of current methodologies for collecting consumer expenditure data. Subsequent chapters highlight the range of different objectives that expenditure surveys may satisfy, compare the data available from consumer expenditure surveys with that available from other sources, and describe how the United States’s current survey practices compare with those in other nations.
Download or read book Foragers Farmers and Fossil Fuels written by Ian Morris and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The best-selling author of Why the West Rules—for Now examines the evolution and future of human values Most people in the world today think democracy and gender equality are good, and that violence and wealth inequality are bad. But most people who lived during the 10,000 years before the nineteenth century thought just the opposite. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, biology, and history, Ian Morris explains why. Fundamental long-term changes in values, Morris argues, are driven by the most basic force of all: energy. Humans have found three main ways to get the energy they need—from foraging, farming, and fossil fuels. Each energy source sets strict limits on what kinds of societies can succeed, and each kind of society rewards specific values. But if our fossil-fuel world favors democratic, open societies, the ongoing revolution in energy capture means that our most cherished values are very likely to turn out not to be useful any more. Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels offers a compelling new argument about the evolution of human values, one that has far-reaching implications for how we understand the past—and for what might happen next. Originating as the Tanner Lectures delivered at Princeton University, the book includes challenging responses by classicist Richard Seaford, historian of China Jonathan Spence, philosopher Christine Korsgaard, and novelist Margaret Atwood.
Download or read book The Origins of Unfairness written by Cailin O'Connor and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In almost every human society some people get more and others get less. Why is inequity the rule in these societies? In The Origins of Unfairness, philosopher Cailin O'Connor firstly considers how groups are divided into social categories, like gender, race, and religion, to address this question. She uses the formal frameworks of game theory and evolutionary game theory to explore the cultural evolution of the conventions which piggyback on these seemingly irrelevant social categories. These frameworks elucidate a variety of topics from the innateness of gender differences, to collaboration in academia, to household bargaining, to minority disadvantage, to homophily. They help to show how inequity can emerge from simple processes of cultural change in groups with gender and racial categories, and under a wide array of situations. The process of learning conventions of coordination and resource division is such that some groups will tend to get more and others less. O'Connor offers solutions to such problems of coordination and resource division and also shows why we need to think of inequity as part of an ever evolving process. Surprisingly minimal conditions are needed to robustly produce phenomena related to inequity and, once inequity emerges in these models, it takes very little for it to persist indefinitely. Thus, those concerned with social justice must remain vigilant against the dynamic forces that push towards inequity.
Download or read book The Creation of Inequality written by Kent Flannery and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flannery and Marcus demonstrate that the rise of inequality was not simply the result of population increase, food surplus, or the accumulation of valuables but resulted from conscious manipulation of the unique social logic that lies at the core of every human group. Reversing the social logic can reverse inequality, they argue, without violence.
Download or read book The Evolution of World Inequality in Well being written by Koen Decancq and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Inequality and Development Challenges written by Maria Clara Couto Soares and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2018-10-24 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This series of books brings together results of an extensive research programme on aspects of the national systems of innovation (NSI) in the five BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. It provides a comprehensive and comparative examination of the challenges and opportunities faced by these dynamic and emerging economies. In discussing the impact of innovation with respect to economic, geopolitical, socio-cultural, institutional, and technological systems, it reveals the possibilities of new development paradigms for equitable and sustainable growth. This volume analyses the co-evolution of inequality and NSI across the BRICS economies. It reveals the multi-dimensional character of inequality, in going beyond its income aspect to include assets, access to basic services, infrastructure, knowledge, race, gender, ethnicity and geographic location. In advancing valuable policy recommendations, the book argues that inequalities must be factored in development strategies given that benefits of innovation are not automatically distributed equally. Original and detailed data, together with expert analyses on wide-ranging issues, make this book an invaluable resource for researchers and scholars in economics, development studies and political science, in addition to policy-makers and development practitioners interested in the BRICS countries.
Download or read book Inequality written by Harold Lewis Longaker and published by . This book was released on 2017-02-23 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of equality has two edges. The first, equality under the law or equality of treatment, is a tenet of many modern liberal societies. Opposite treatment is the second edge, outcome, where inequality, not equality, is often the reality. An example is the huge disparity in the wealth of nations, with some achieving a per capita GDP in excess of $40,000, while others remain below $2,000-a twenty-fold difference. At the intersection of equality's two edges exists a belief in the psychic unity of humankind, a dogma of the social sciences. Their argument is that we were all the same when we started our migration out of Africa some 50,000 years ago and that, excluding trivial physiological changes, we have not changed significantly since. Psychologically, we are now as we were then. With this belief in hand, the social sciences have concluded that any differences observed in outcomes between people cannot be due to biology but rather must be due to other factors, such as the environment or types of governance. Going a step further, they insist that people are not to blame for their differential outcomes, and, in fact, stating any such sentiment is forbidden. Racist is the pejorative term often used for those expressing such opinions. INEQUALITY disagrees. It posits that the paradigm of psyche equality of humanity is false, and developing a Darwinian-based model supporting this argument is this book's raison d'ètre. Answering the question of why some nations are rich while others remain poor provides context, and this is the base question INEQUALITY addresses. It does so, but not with the usual mono-disciplined approach of comparative history, economics, environmental determinism, or other. It uniquely uses the binding thread of Darwinian Theory to stitch together bits and pieces from a broad variety of disciplines to form the whole, explanatory cloth. In doing so, it creates a holistic model of human evolution. Pointedly, the model explains how, over the past thousand years or so, differences in economic acumen between populations have arisen, accounting for much of the disparity in economic outcomes we observe today. The starting point for the model is Clark's observation in A Farewell to Alms that wealthy English testators in preindustrial England had more surviving progeny than poorer persons did. This is the classic definition of biological fitness and suggests that wealth is biologically adaptive, making it a factor in Darwinian fitness. Importantly, as Darwinian Theory predicts that fitness-enhancing, heritable traits should increase in populations, this leads to the prediction that, for certain ways of making a living or particular evolutionary environments, heritable traits promoting wealth generation will increase in populations. These traits include hard work, intelligence, and delayed gratification, among others. Humans are uniquely clever and, with our ability to form distinct cultures, have created over the recent past millennia a variety of evolutionary environments. Some forged urban centers, while others remained rural and agrarian. Some froze their tribal ways, and others adopted the modern state and its institutions. With these cultural differences and others, natural selection operating on traits promoting wealth has, over many generations, resulted in populations with differing refinements in economic acumen. Some do very well in the modern economic world; others do not. The social sciences empirically describe how we are different, but as their respective paradigms lack the foundation of modern evolutionary theory, they are unable to explain why; they can only speak to how. INEQUALITY combines the empiricism of the social sciences with Darwinian Theory to explain why we are different, and with knowledge of why, we can predict. Toward its end, INEQUALITY uses its model to examine eight major populations and finds that its model is consistent with what we observe.
Download or read book Origins of Inequality in Human Societies written by Bernd Baldus and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-28 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the beginning of social life human societies have faced the problem how to distribute the results of collaborative activities among the participants. The solutions they found ranged from egalitarian to unequal but caused more dissension and conflict than just about any other social structure in human history. Social inequality also dominated the agenda of the new field of sociology in the 19th century. The theories developed during that time still inform academic and public debates, and inequality continues to be the subject of much current controversy. Origins of Inequality begins with a critical assessment of classical explanations of inequality in the social sciences and the political and economic environment in which they arose. The book then offers a new theory of the evolution of distributive structures in human societies. It examines the interaction of chance, intent and unforeseen consequences in the emergence of social inequality, traces its irregular historical path in different societies, and analyses processes of social control which consolidated inequality even when it was costly or harmful for most participants. Because the evolution of distributive structures is an open process, the book also explores issues of distributive justice and options for greater equality in modern societies. Along with its focus on social inequality the book covers topics in cultural evolution, social and economic history and social theory. This book will appeal to scholars and advanced students of sociology, economics and anthropology – in particular sociological theory and social inequality.
Download or read book On the Evolution of Income Inequality in the United States A Reprint from the Economic Quarterly written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Globalization of Inequality written by François Bourguignon and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-01-24 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why national and international equality matter and what we can do to ensure a fairer world In The Globalization of Inequality, distinguished economist and policymaker François Bourguignon examines the complex and paradoxical links between a vibrant world economy that has raised the living standard of over half a billion people in emerging nations such as China, India, and Brazil, and the exponentially increasing inequality within countries. Exploring globalization's role in the evolution of inequality, Bourguignon takes an original and truly international approach to the decrease in inequality between nations, the increase in inequality within nations, and the policies that might moderate inequality’s negative effects. Demonstrating that in a globalized world it becomes harder to separate out the factors leading to domestic or international inequality, Bourguignon examines each trend through a variety of sources, and looks at how these inequalities sometimes balance each other out or reinforce one another. Factoring in the most recent economic crisis, Bourguignon investigates why inequality in some countries has dropped back to levels that have not existed for several decades, and he asks if these should be considered in the context of globalization or if they are in fact specific to individual nations. Ultimately, Bourguignon argues that it will be up to countries in the developed and developing world to implement better policies, even though globalization limits the scope for some potential redistributive instruments. An informed and original contribution to the current debates about inequality, this book will be essential reading for anyone who is interested in the future of the world economy.
Download or read book Inequality Boom and Bust written by Howard J. Sherman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-19 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is enormous inequality between the income and wealth of the richest 1 percent and all other Americans. While the top 1 percent own 42 percent of all wealth in America, the lower half on the income ladder has only 2 percent of all of the wealth. This book develops a viewpoint contrary to the prevailing conservative paradigm, setting out both reasons for this inequality and the impact of this. To explain inequality, conservative economists focus on individual characteristics such as intelligence and hard work. This book puts forward new evidence to show that changes in economic inequality are primarily due to characteristics inherent in the standard operation of capitalist institutions. Furthermore, the authors seek to explain the cycle of boom and bust by considering political and social factors often overlooked by conservative economists. This book also explores how wealth influences political policies in a way that increases economic inequality even more than its present level. Through analysis of American political and economic institutions, Inequality, Boom, and Bust presents concrete steps for an activist, progressive policy to greatly reduce inequality through free healthcare, free higher education, and reduced unemployment.
Download or read book Global Inequality written by Branko Milanovic and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-04-11 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Bruno Kreisky Prize, Karl Renner Institut A Financial Times Best Economics Book of the Year An Economist Best Book of the Year A Livemint Best Book of the Year One of the world’s leading economists of inequality, Branko Milanovic presents a bold new account of the dynamics that drive inequality on a global scale. Drawing on vast data sets and cutting-edge research, he explains the benign and malign forces that make inequality rise and fall within and among nations. He also reveals who has been helped the most by globalization, who has been held back, and what policies might tilt the balance toward economic justice. “The data [Milanovic] provides offer a clearer picture of great economic puzzles, and his bold theorizing chips away at tired economic orthodoxies.” —The Economist “Milanovic has written an outstanding book...Informative, wide-ranging, scholarly, imaginative and commendably brief. As you would expect from one of the world’s leading experts on this topic, Milanovic has added significantly to important recent works by Thomas Piketty, Anthony Atkinson and François Bourguignon...Ever-rising inequality looks a highly unlikely combination with any genuine democracy. It is to the credit of Milanovic’s book that it brings out these dangers so clearly, along with the important global successes of the past few decades. —Martin Wolf, Financial Times
Download or read book Pathways to Power written by T. Douglas Price and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-08-20 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are few questions more central to understanding the prehistory of our species than those regarding the institutionalization of social inequality. Social inequality is manifested in unequal access to goods, information, decision-making, and power. This structure is essential to higher orders of social organization and basic to the operation of more complex societies. An understanding of the transformation from relatively egalitarian societies to a hierarchical organization and socioeconomic stratification is fundamental to our knowledge about the human condition. In a follow-up to their 1995 book Foundations of Social Inequality, the Editors of this volume have compiled a new and comprehensive group of studies concerning these central questions. When and where does hierarchy appear in human society, and how does it operate? With numerous case studies from the Old and New World, spanning foraging societies to agricultural groups, and complex states, Pathways to Power provides key historical insights into current social and cultural questions.
Download or read book Inequality written by Harold Longaker and published by . This book was released on 2016-11-24 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inequality answers the question - why are some nations rich while others remain poor. It does this with a multidisciplinary or consilient approach. It stitches together several disciplines with the binding thread of Darwinian Theory to create the explanatory model. In the end the model is used to to examine eight distinct religions / geographies.
Download or read book The Economics of Inequality written by Thomas Piketty and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-03 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Succinct, accessible, and authoritative, Thomas Piketty’s The Economics of Inequality is the ideal place to start for those who want to understand the fundamental issues at the heart of one the most pressing concerns in contemporary economics and politics. This work now appears in English for the first time.
