Inequality of Wealth

Abstract

We come now to consider some of the main sorts of inequality and the degree to which they can be altered. Bottomore observes that for most of history men have generally regarded inequalities in wealth, prestige, and power as ‘an unalterable fact’ and that it has only been since the eighteenth century, when the great revolutions in America and France gave stimulus to such enquiry, that serious study has been made of the phenomenon of social class ‘as a stark embodiment of the principle of inequality’. Moreover it is only since the eighteenth century that these inequalities have become widely questioned and criticized from the standpoint of social justice.¹ Now, as we have already noted, it is not all inequalities which are usually questioned in this way; so it is necessary to pinpoint those inequalities that have been thought to matter, those which have come in for most criticism. Whether these are alterable is clearly an issue of great importance. As to the inequalities no one complains about, it would be interesting to determine whether this is because they are believed to be unalterable, because they are felt not to matter or because, though they do matter, they are regarded as beneficial in some way or other.