Nierówności jako element pragmatyzmu gospodarczego
Inequalities as an element of economic pragmatism

Summary/Abstract: Inequality is a problem that affects virtually the entire modern world. The author remindsus that in 2000, the UN adopted the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and then, in 2015,specified the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to guide the world’s development in order toclose the gaps between and within countries.The author discusses the most important conclusions on the effects of inequality from the workof the Joseph E. Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi Commission, the works of Stiglitz andPiketty. He points out that income and wealth inequalities began to grow in the US and Europeancountries from the early 1980s, when the expansion of neoliberal ideology took place and countriesbegan to withdraw tax progression mechanisms in tax policy. These inequalities are therefore notnatural, as conservatives believe, they stem from ideology – and here he agrees with Piketty.However, he points out that it does not mean that inequality should be abolished altogetherand be replaced by equality, as he argues that the level of inequality should stabilise at some levelresulting from a certain rationality. He shows that certain principles of inequality are universal andhave been applied since antiquity, and advocates for principles of inequality pragmatism. The needis not for an equality of income and asset status but for the chances of each person being at anappropriate level within pragmatic, rational and just rules of inequality. He points out that it isthrough inequality that the natural world develops and, in fact, inequality needs the economy bothat national and global levels, as it is needed for creative development. The author urges: Let ustherefore seek rational rules of inequality.

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