Social'noe neravenstvo: Al'ternativnyy vzglyad (ePub)

The purpose of this book is to make the reader wonder if it is such an axiom that equality is always good and inequality always bad. The author considers situations in which the desire to achieve excessive equality leads to a decrease in overall well-being. He also offers an unusual angle to look at some aspects of economic and political inequality and issues of discrimination against certain ethnic and social groups. Is it possible for them to be positively discriminated against under certain circumstances? The key thesis of the book is that the fight against any form of inequality is justified and useful when its level strongly deviates from the optimal values for a given stage of development of society (clearly pronounced, causing obvious harm, relatively easy to fix). But if the current degree of inequality is already close to the available optimum, then any further struggle for equality and the promotion of egalitarianism only leads to an increase in costs and a decrease in the level of life satisfaction among the discriminated groups themselves. Another central idea of the book is that the cultural narrative of attitudes towards inequality affects its perception much more than its actual level. Since there are limited objective opportunities to further reduce inequality, the prevailing narrative today of an uncompromising struggle for equality in any issue and at any cost does more harm than good.