Social Inequality, Moral Implications, and Questions for Public Policy

Social inequality is a datum that appears to have defied effort in all societies towards a just solution. It implies a lack of equality in social indices as diverse as wealth, education, health, property rights, voting rights, gender, and racial rights among others. There are several perspectives to the issue of which this paper reviews some and submits that there is no easy solution particularly given the economic concept of Pareto optimality. This concept holds that any attempt to reorganize the distribution of society’s or organizational resources to favour any individual or group implies hurting someone else or group. The philosophical problem that arises is of a moral dimension: how does one resolve the dilemma of equalizing opportunities when the privileged deserve as much justice and fair treatment as the underprivileged? Also, how does one attempt to sort out the problem of social inequality in the face of Aristotle’s concept of distributive justice