IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fgv/eesptd/261.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The inequality curse: constraints and political discretion

Author

Listed:
  • Bresser-Pereira, Luiz Carlos

Abstract

We live in an unjust world characterized by economic inequality. No liberal theory of justice is able to justify it. Inequality is not 'solved' with equality of opportunity or meritocracy. Nor by the socialist and republican critique. The poor will have to count with them and with democracy to make social progress reality. In their political struggle, they will face one economic constraint: the expected profit rate must remain attractive to business investors. Yet, giving that technological progress in increasingly capital-saving, this economic constraint does not obstruct that wages grow above the productivity rate and inequality is reduced. What really is an obstacle to social justice in the rich countries is, on one hand, the power that capitalist rentiers retain and financists acquired, and, on the other, the competition originated in low wage countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Bresser-Pereira, Luiz Carlos, 2010. "The inequality curse: constraints and political discretion," Textos para discussão 261, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
    • Handle: RePEc:fgv:eesptd:261
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://repositorio.fgv.br/bitstreams/37c18e6b-e089-4d2f-98af-aeac68b6fe85/download
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira, 2018. "Growth and distribution: a revised classical model," Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Center of Political Economy, vol. 38(1), pages 3-27.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bresser-Pereira, Luiz Carlos, 2021. "Brazil's quasi-stagnation and East-Asia growth: A new-developmental explanation," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 500-508.
    2. Bresser-Pereira, Luiz Carlos, 2007. "Why did democracy become the preferred political regime only in the twentieth century?," Textos para discussão 149, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).
    3. Bresser-Pereira, Luiz Carlos, 2011. "Democracy and capitalist revolution," Textos para discussão 277, FGV EESP - Escola de Economia de São Paulo, Fundação Getulio Vargas (Brazil).

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fgv:eesptd:261. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Núcleo de Computação da FGV EPGE (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eegvfbr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.