Inequality The Unbeatable Challenge

This edited book presents some unexplored issues of economic inequality, including case studies of various countries. Inequality is a chronic and divisive factor of society. Inequality exists as an integral attribute of human development. Communities, nations, and systems are not evolving at the same speed and rate and thus require different resources in different amounts. However, the distribution of winnings is also uneven due to the multidimensionality of influencing factors.When we talk about inequality, it is not just inequality of income or wealth; it is first, inequality in access to priorities and human needs – to shelter, to clean water, air, health care, and also to appropriate vaccination systems and assistance, security systems and safety guarantees for the future. Past financial crises and the current pandemic shock has revealed bugs in the system, shaking it and changing our perception of the norms.We may have no doubts that inequality is an unsolved problem, but now we need to find out - is it unbeatable? There is still lack of knowledge around how inequality has been grounded throughout human civilization, why society is stratified and classified, economically, politically, socially, and religiously; and why the discrimination due to gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, language differences, immigration status, caste, race and ethnicity? This book addresses these issues in a holistic way as well as including case studies of various countries. It tries to find out why inequality has been unbeatable and what would be the best policies to overcome this challenge.

This edited book presents some unexplored issues of economic inequality, including case studies of various countries. Inequality is a chronic and divisive factor of society. Inequality exists as an integral attribute of human development. Communities, nations, and systems are not evolving at the same speed and rate and thus require different resources in different amounts. However, the distribution of winnings is also uneven due to the multidimensionality of influencing factors.When we talk about inequality, it is not just inequality of income or wealth; it is first, inequality in access to priorities and human needs – to shelter, to clean water, air, health care, and also to appropriate vaccination systems and assistance, security systems and safety guarantees for the future. Past financial crises and the current pandemic shock has revealed bugs in the system, shaking it and changing our perception of the norms.We may have no doubts that inequality is an unsolved problem, but now we need to find out - is it unbeatable? There is still lack of knowledge around how inequality has been grounded throughout human civilization, why society is stratified and classified, economically, politically, socially, and religiously; and why the discrimination due to gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, language differences, immigration status, caste, race and ethnicity? This book addresses these issues in a holistic way as well as including case studies of various countries. It tries to find out why inequality has been unbeatable and what would be the best policies to overcome this challenge.

This edited book presents some unexplored issues of economic inequality, including case studies of various countries. Inequality is a chronic and divisive factor of society. Inequality exists as an integral attribute of human development. Communities, nations, and systems are not evolving at the same speed and rate and thus require different resources in different amounts. However, the distribution of winnings is also uneven due to the multidimensionality of influencing factors. When we talk about inequality, it is not just inequality of income or wealth; it is first, inequality in access to priorities and human needs - to shelter, to clean water, air, health care, and also to appropriate vaccination systems and assistance, security systems and safety guarantees for the future. Past financial crises and the current pandemic shock has revealed bugs in the system, shaking it and changing our perception of the norms. We may have no doubts that inequality is an unsolved problem, but now we need to find out - is it unbeatable? There is still lack of knowledge around how inequality has been grounded throughout human civilization, why society is stratified and classified, economically, politically, socially, and religiously; and why the discrimination due to gender, sexual orientation, country of origin, language differences, immigration status, caste, race and ethnicity? This book addresses these issues in a holistic way as well as including case studies of various countries. It tries to find out why inequality has been unbeatable and what would be the best policies to overcome this challenge. Technical topics discussed in the book include:  Inequality the problems of all times, an unbeatable challenge.  Problems and consequences inequality  Gender Inequality  Covid Pandemic the boaster of inequality  Inequalities in Education / Healthcare / Food Supply  Inequality due to gender, age, origin, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, class, refugee status and religion.  Social exclusion is consumption patterns- economic patterns

Is civilization teetering on the edge of a cliff? Or are we just climbing higher than ever? Most people who read the news would tell you that 2017 is one of the worst years in recent memory. We're facing a series of deeply troubling, even existential problems: fascism, terrorism, environmental collapse, racial and economic inequality, and more. Yet this narrative misses something important: by almost every meaningful measure, the modern world is better than it ever has been. In the United States, disease, crime, discrimination, and most forms of pollution are in long-term decline, while longevity and education keep rising and economic indicators are better than in any past generation. Worldwide, malnutrition and extreme poverty are at historic lows, and the risk of dying by war or violence is the lowest in human history. It's not a coincidence that we're confused -- our perspectives on the world are blurred by the rise of social media, the machinations of politicians, and our own biases. Meanwhile, political reforms like the Clean Air Act and technological innovations like the hybridization of wheat have saved huge numbers of lives. In that optimistic spirit, Easterbrook offers specific policy reforms to address climate change, inequality, and other problems, and reminds us that there is real hope in conquering such challenges. In an age of discord and fear-mongering, It's Better Than It Looks will profoundly change your perspective on who we are, where we're headed, and what we're capable of.

A Times Literary Supplement’s Book of the Year 2020 A New Statesman's Best Book of 2020 A Bloomberg's Best Book of 2020 A Guardian Best Book About Ideas of 2020 The world-renowned philosopher and author of the bestselling Justice explores the central question of our time: What has become of the common good? These are dangerous times for democracy. We live in an age of winners and losers, where the odds are stacked in favor of the already fortunate. Stalled social mobility and entrenched inequality give the lie to the American credo that "you can make it if you try". The consequence is a brew of anger and frustration that has fueled populist protest and extreme polarization, and led to deep distrust of both government and our fellow citizens--leaving us morally unprepared to face the profound challenges of our time. World-renowned philosopher Michael J. Sandel argues that to overcome the crises that are upending our world, we must rethink the attitudes toward success and failure that have accompanied globalization and rising inequality. Sandel shows the hubris a meritocracy generates among the winners and the harsh judgement it imposes on those left behind, and traces the dire consequences across a wide swath of American life. He offers an alternative way of thinking about success--more attentive to the role of luck in human affairs, more conducive to an ethic of humility and solidarity, and more affirming of the dignity of work. The Tyranny of Merit points us toward a hopeful vision of a new politics of the common good.

In its history since Independence, India has seen widely different economic experiments: from Jawharlal Nehru's pragmatism to the rigid state socialism of Indira Gandhi to the brisk liberalization of the 1990s. So which strategy best addresses India's, and by extension the world's, greatest moral challenge: lifting a great number of extremely poor people out of poverty? Bhagwati and Panagariya argue forcefully that only one strategy will help the poor to any significant effect: economic growth, led by markets overseen and encouraged by liberal state policies. Their radical message has huge consequences for economists, development NGOs and anti-poverty campaigners worldwide. There are vital lessons here not only for Southeast Asia, but for Africa, Eastern Europe, and anyone who cares that the effort to eradicate poverty is more than just good intentions. If you want it to work, you need growth. With all that implies.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Comprehensive, enlightening, and terrifyingly timely.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITH BOOK PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Time • Foreign Affairs • WBUR • Paste Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang—in a revolution or military coup—but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one. Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die—and how ours can be saved. Praise for How Democracies Die “What we desperately need is a sober, dispassionate look at the current state of affairs. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two of the most respected scholars in the field of democracy studies, offer just that.”—The Washington Post “Where Levitsky and Ziblatt make their mark is in weaving together political science and historical analysis of both domestic and international democratic crises; in doing so, they expand the conversation beyond Trump and before him, to other countries and to the deep structure of American democracy and politics.”—Ezra Klein, Vox “If you only read one book for the rest of the year, read How Democracies Die. . . .This is not a book for just Democrats or Republicans. It is a book for all Americans. It is nonpartisan. It is fact based. It is deeply rooted in history. . . . The best commentary on our politics, no contest.”—Michael Morrell, former Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (via Twitter) “A smart and deeply informed book about the ways in which democracy is being undermined in dozens of countries around the world, and in ways that are perfectly legal.”—Fareed Zakaria, CNN

How secular governance in the Middle East is making life worse—not better—for religious minorities The plight of religious minorities in the Middle East is often attributed to the failure of secularism to take root in the region. Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges this assessment by examining four cornerstones of secularism—political and civil equality, minority rights, religious freedom, and the legal separation of private and public domains. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork in Egypt with Coptic Orthodox Christians and Bahais—religious minorities in a predominantly Muslim country—Saba Mahmood shows how modern secular governance has exacerbated religious tensions and inequalities rather than reduced them. Tracing the historical career of secular legal concepts in the colonial and postcolonial Middle East, she explores how contradictions at the very heart of political secularism have aggravated and amplified existing forms of Islamic hierarchy, bringing minority relations in Egypt to a new historical impasse. Through a close examination of Egyptian court cases and constitutional debates about minority rights, conflicts around family law, and controversies over freedom of expression, Mahmood invites us to reflect on the entwined histories of secularism in the Middle East and Europe. A provocative work of scholarship, Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges us to rethink the promise and limits of the secular ideal of religious equality.