Inequality of wealth is above all inequality of power in society, and in theory it has no limit, to the extent that the owner-established apparatus of repression or persuasion (as the case may be) is able to hold society together and perpetuate this equilibrium.9
Inequality of wealth is above all inequality of power in society, and in theory it has no limit, to the extent that the owner-established apparatus of repression or persuasion (as the case may be) is able to hold society together and perpetuate this equilibrium.9
More generally, it is easy to show that the maximal materially possible level of inequality in any society increases with that society’s average standard of living (Fig. 7.6).10
The “material” determinants of inequality should not be exaggerated, however. In reality, history teaches us that what determines the level of inequality is above all society’s ideological, political, and institutional capacity to justify and structure inequality and not the level of wealth or development as such.
