Social Justice Activism

When people were asked, what would be the wealth of each quintile in their ideal
society, they gave a 50-fold sum to the richest quintile than to the poorest quintile. The
preference for inequality increases in adolescence, and so do the capabilities to favor
fortune, effort and ability in the distribution.
Preference for unequal distribution has been developed to the human race possibly
because it allows for better co-operation and allows a person to work with a more
productive person so that both parties benefit from the co-operation. Inequality is also
said to be able to solve the problems of free-riders, cheaters and ill-behaving people,
although this is heavily debated.
In many societies, such as the USSR, the distribution led to protests from wealthier
landowners. In the current U.S., many feel that the distribution is unfair in being too
unequal. In both cases, the cause is unfairness, not inequality, the researchers
conclude.
Socialist Perspectives
Socialists attribute the vast disparities in wealth to the private ownership of the means of
production by a class of owners, creating a situation where a small portion of the
population lives off unearned property income by virtue of ownership titles in capital
equipment, financial assets and corporate stock.
By contrast, the vast majority of the population is dependent on income in the form of a
wage or salary. In order to rectify this situation, socialists argue that the means of
production should be socially owned so that income differentials would be reflective
of individual contributions to the social product.
Marxist socialists ultimately predict the emergence of a communist society based on the
common ownership of the means of production, where each individual citizen would
have free access to the articles of consumption (From each according to his ability, to
each according to his need). According to Marxist philosophy, equality in the sense of
free access is essential for freeing individuals from dependent relationships, thereby
allowing them to transcend alienation.
Meritocracy
Meritocracy favors an eventual society where an individual's success is a direct function
of his merit, or contribution. Economic inequality would be a natural consequence of the
wide range in individual skill, talent and effort in human population. David Landes stated
that the progression of Western economic development that led to the Industrial
Revolution was facilitated by men advancing through their own merit rather than
because of family or political connections.
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