Capitalist Interests of Income Inequality

PHILOSOPHY 1305
Introduction
Capitalism which is advocated as a solution for all economic problems and as a
universal way to achieve economic growth of the humankind consistently falls short of
ensuring inclusive economic growth. It also leads to question about whether capitalism is
compatible with inclusive economic growth or not as a lack of such economic growth would
not only have outcomes and consequences of an economic nature but also of political and
social nature. In the contemporary world, a lack of economic growth or poverty is often
looked down upon and is not considered a real issue. A growing sentiment is that poverty is
due to a lack of abilities or intellect of some sorts of those who are plagued by it and that the
system is not made to maintain the status quo. The notion of income inequality is of
significance here as this is the measure to gauge economic growth in terms of income and
accumulation of wealth. A high-income inequality, on an individual level, can be attributed to
or be a consequence of psychological stress or other emotional upheaval which in turn results
in societal issues of political and/or social nature. There are multitudes of academic
explanations and solutions, in a number of social science disciplines, on the matter of income
inequality and its consequences. In this essay, a sociological lens is utilized to view the
relation between capitalism and income inequality. The purpose of this sociological approach
is to examine the relation between the consequences of income inequality and capitalism.
Thus, this paper will argue that the consequences of income inequality are underlying
enablers of capitalism without which the system’s survival is threatened. Thus, in this essay, I
will effectively depict how income inequality is inherent to capitalism and how the capitalism
results in the consequences of income inequality both on individual and societal level, which
in turn, ensure the system’s survival.