When is inequality bad?

Question

When is inequality bad for a society? Would you agree that inequality is a foundation of civilization? When is inequality beneficial to society?

Answer 1

is bad always

Answer 2

You asked two questions: 1 when is inequality bad for a society?
Answer: When someone dies from it! M.L.K. (Martin L. King)
No actually I'm a white man... Question number 2: would I agree that inequality is a foundation of civilization? If Ten Bears was still alive today and you asked this question what do you think he would say? He would say, go home white man. The last part of your question is When is inequality beneficial to society? Hitler used it against the Jews, it almost became very beneficial for him. So in all fairness how do you feel when you know the answers.

Answer 3

True equality is when absolutely everything and everyone is equal in every way. Everyone, regardless of race or gender, is treated exactly the same. Also, everyone makes the same amount of money, lives in similar homes, contributes the same amount to society, accepts the same amount of responsibility, has the same education, etc.

Equality is a much bigger concept than what is typically referred to as equality.

I do believe that inequality is a foundation of society. The above description of equality can never truly be achieved. The closest would be communism, and even that can only really be achieved by self-sufficient, small groups of people. Once trade enters the picture and the society is larger, you get socialism. This isn't the way to achieve equality either, because in socialism it is someone's job to regulate everything (hence, that person has more power and is above everyone else).

Inequality is bad for a society when the differences are at opposite ends of the spectrum, so to speak. For example, when the lower and upper classes are so distantly separated from each other that there is no middle class. Or when the gender roles of men and women are so different from each other that there is no overlap (no woman has a job, and no man ever does housework). Or when racial differences are so great that blacks and whites can't even speak to each other, let alone live in the same town.

Things used to be this way. In many places, things still are this way. I think it is important to create less inequality, but I also think it is important to remember that things can never be completely and totally equal.

Answer 4

The problem with inequality is that it means humanity's opportunities are less. If a brilliant person who could have found the cure for cancer is born into the 'untouchable' caste or born black in the USA in 1930, they would have no opportunity to make that contribution.
What if the most promising software engineer is born a woman in afganistan now? Not allowed to go to school. Humanity might miss out on the next great idea.
Limiting the opportunities and contributions of people limits the progress of society?
I agree that a 'pecking order' exists in all species. However in humans it's much more complex. There's not just one pecking order. We measure on so many scales.

i can see that inequality means that all the 'dirty' jobs can be done by those who are lower in the order. we don't have to make decisions about who will sweep the floors or clean the toilets, those folks identified as less-than will do that.

inequality of income is a fact of capitalism. which is designed to motivate people. as long as the inequality is not based on differential opportunity (which is kind of hard to determine) then it is a natural part of capitalism.

PS all human cultures have inequality as a part of them
though we try to overcome it sometimes.

Answer 5

inequality isn't really a foundation of civilization. its the foundation for the destruction of civilizations. as far back as you care to go there are lots of civilizations that fell because of inequality. if you actually read a history of sodom and gamorrah they were destroyed by god because they forgot the poor. Their obsession with their own pleasure was a symptom -- not the cause. nero fiddled while rome burned. lots of wealthy french people lost their heads at the fall of the court of louis xvi. ask mussolini about setting up governments based on inequality.

the pragmatic view that financial gains should be a reward for creativity and a strong work ethic have been disproven over and over again in the country that touts it the most. if you go to work and do something great someone way up the ladder gets rewarded and you get 2 1/2% raise annually.

meanwhile most other industrailized countries recognize the need for everyones grandmother, mother, and child should have affordable health care. In our country there is no affordable health care without the insurance that 55,000,000 people in the united states don't have.

Answer 6

In the foundation of every civilization, some group of citizens have been considered lower class. Great nations were built on the backs of slaves, and inequality is inevitable. If every one tried to be equal to one another, it would be chaos. Humans as a species need a law, a doctrine, a definate rule of some such, in order to function and serve a sense of purpose. And who would make these laws, doctrines, or definate rules of some such? A person who thinks that they have an idea better than anyone else's. A person who thinks that they can do it better. A person in the economic position to force his beliefs upon someone else. Inequality is a basic concept in human society and civilization, and it is inevitable, even if it is unfortunate

Answer 7

there must be inequality for populations to survive - this is true of all the animal kingdom. You can't have all the male lions dominant for example. In the human world there will always be workers an managers - leaders and followers - how else would the work get done to keep society progressing.

Like it or not - there will always be inequality in the physical world - however, all men are equal in the eyes of God.

Answer 8

It is always bad, and it not the foundation of a working society, at least it should not be. Inequality, like any other neo-liberal B.S. leads to anger and dissolution for people. Never look down on people, or straight in the eye if your intentions are faulty.

There is only different assigned roles, social identities; this is based on people's capacities to lead, follow, perform, educate, learn, investigate, etc. We have different roles to serve one purpose. Natural selection comes into play with this but that is a whole different plate.....

Answer 9

inequality is beneficial as a mom because my children all have different needs and desires and to be fair , you have to treat them different . I guess basically all people have different needs but the rights need to be equal,Unequal rights would be bad for society No , I don't agree inequality is good for society, but we need to respect and make the most of our differences.

Answer 10

Inequality is a fact of life not just a society. It is what allows the world to function. Imagine if no one had the job of saying, "do you want to supersize that?"

Answer 11

Inequality seems to be necessary for society. It gives people a sense of belonging and purpose to be seperated into social classes. This however is not true of the "free" thinker leaving he/she traveling through life searching for the true purpose for thier existence.