Acceptance or aversion? Understanding societys interplay with wealth inequality

Peter D. Brandon

Chapter 11 in A Modern Guide to Economic Sociology, 2020, pp 204-218 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Economic inequality is often equated with income inequality. But income inequality is only one form of inequality, wealth inequality is another. Despite its critical importance to understanding economic inequality, wealth inequality has received less attention until recently. Now, because the distribution of wealth is so concentrated among the few, it is actively studied and constantly debated among legislators, scholars, and citizen groups. The heightened focus on wealth inequality has also generated many questions: What is the most accurate definition of wealth inequality? What methodologies and data best measure the concentration of wealth? What causes wealth inequality and what are its effects? Should governments tax the wealthiest? But, there is a deeper question that is fundamental to understanding wealth inequality and its perpetuation: Why do societies accept wealth inequality rather than avert its continuation? In this chapter, this essential question is addressed alongside related questions about wealth inequality.

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Sociology and Social Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781789901306/9781789901306.00015.xml (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:18970_11

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().