Inevitable Inequality?

Inequality isn’t a distant problem—it’s visible in every city, street, and screen. Yet, it often goes unnoticed. The middle class looks away, buffered by relative comfort. The rich, who benefit most from the system, dismiss concerns. Meanwhile, people experiencing poverty are too entangled in survival to pause and reflect, like Chaplin’s factory worker in Modern Times, swallowed by the machine.

The numbers are staggering. Just 10% of the global population controls 90% of the wealth. The rest fight for scraps. Capital—another name for entrenched wealth—dominates everything. Countries chase GDP growth, a number that says little about actual human well-being. The media often turns poverty into a background blur, treating it as old news. This isn’t just an Indian story. Inequality is now a global condition. Despite warnings from Nobel economists and international institutions, meaningful solutions remain elusive. If policy alone could fix inequality, it would have been curbed long ago. It’s spread now feels not just unchecked, but inevitable.

The roots of inequality stem from three primary forces: inheritance, capital, and systemic privilege. In India, wealth is often passed across generations untaxed. In the US and the UK, inheritance taxes exist but are frequently circumvented. Those who inherit money usually enjoy elite education, healthcare, and safety nets, regardless of whether they have the drive or ability that created the wealth in the first place. Privilege becomes invisible when it is all you’ve known.

Capital, once accumulated, multiplies itself. Billionaires earn passive interest that eclipses a middle-class worker’s lifetime income. They get cheaper credit, dominate markets and shape narratives. Take a brand like Colgate—its financial power ensures visibility and pricing advantages that small players can never match. Speculation, crony capitalism, and corporate-political collusion further skew the system. While corruption is condemned in theory, it is rarely punished in practice. The result? A closed loop of influence and immunity at the top.

We love rags-to-riches stories. But these are outliers, not the norm. A child born into poverty—with illiterate parents and broken schools—needs almost superhuman effort to succeed. Maybe one in 1,00,000 manages that leap. Yet the middle class often uses these rare cases to defend the system: “If he made it, why not others?” In reality, such stories don’t challenge inequality—they validate it. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg are hailed as dropouts who made it big. But most dropouts don’t become billionaires; they struggle to survive. Gandhi once said, “The world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not for everyone’s greed.” That truth is still ignored.

Imagine a radical scenario: all wealth is redistributed equally. In India, this could mean Rs 18,000 a month per family—enough to live with basic dignity. Would people stop working? Unlikely. People with low incomes would still work, driven by need and pride. The more insulated and aspirational middle class might struggle more with the change. Redistribution wouldn’t erase inequality overnight. However, it could offer everyone a fair start—a foundation of security to build upon. The goal isn’t to demonise the rich, but to ensure that no one is forced into indignity due to a lack of opportunity.

Real solutions must centre around jobs, not charity. Governments aren’t benefactors—they are duty-bound to secure citizens’ welfare. That means creating jobs, offering training, and enabling access to capital. But we’re moving in the wrong direction. The number of jobs generated per crore of investment in India is falling. Automation is replacing people, even in a country rich in human labour. Why not incentivise industries that create jobs? One idea is to tax companies that employ fewer workers per capita, encouraging them to adopt labour-intensive models. Subsidies, too, should be tied to unemployment, not just income. In the US, unemployment insurance is linked to job status. India needs a similar shift that recognises work as central to dignity.

In the US, inequality peaked before the Great Depression. Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal—with aggressive taxation and welfare—reduced it dramatically. At one point in time, top tax rates exceeded 90%. The wealth gap shrank, and the economy boomed. Since the 1960s, however, deregulation and tax cuts have revived extreme inequality. The lesson is clear: inequality is not natural or inevitable. It is shaped—and can be reshaped—by policy, politics, and public will.

Inequality is no longer just an economic issue; it has become a broader social concern. It’s a moral and existential one. Structural inequality cannot be fixed by charity or market faith. We need systemic reform that prioritises labour, dignity, and access. And we need the middle class to wake up. Their silence helps sustain the divide. They have the numbers, the influence, and the moral responsibility to push for a more equal society. Correcting inequality may seem impossible, just like tearing down the Berlin Wall once did. But history teaches us that no system is eternal. All it takes is a spark—and the will to build something better.

The writer writes about Politics, Material Culture, and Economic History. Views expressed are personal