"¿POR QUÉ PREFERIMOS LA DESIGUALDAD?" - François Dubet

“Why Do We Prefer Inequality?”, subtitled “Understanding the Crisis of Solidarity,” is a book by the French philosopher François Dubet, originally published in French in 2014 and translated into Spanish in 2015 by Siglo XXI Editores. Despite its principles suggesting otherwise, our societies “choose” inequality. Why? Some believe that inequality is good for driving growth, while others consider equality to be merely an abstract principle. Today, there are very active political groups that uphold an ideology of inequality, rejecting social protections or aid for the most disadvantaged sectors, whose objective is to generate greater equality. Dubet's hypothesis is that this tendency to support inequality is a consequence of a crisis of solidarity, understanding “solidarity” as the attachment to social bonds, which leads us to desire equality for all, including strangers. The hypothesis is that any policy of equality requires the pre-existence of a basic sense of solidarity in society, a prior bond of fraternity among people that compels each individual to put themselves in the place of another, and, above all, the less fortunate. Today, this sense of solidarity has been lost in society, hindering the success of policies aimed at equality. We witness, with little more than a brief indignation, the accelerated increase in social inequalities, the dismantling of the old welfare states, and a trend toward social segregation, expressed in a growing "tax fatigue" among a large part of the population. This is nothing more than a refusal to pay taxes, arguing that they go to "people who don't deserve them." It is repeated as if it were revealed truth that "the poor steal from social security," that "the unemployed abuse their rights," and that "working-class neighborhoods are dangerous areas where the law doesn't exist." As we become less and less empathetic, we end up accepting inequalities that don't directly affect us, and we may even come to desire them, since certain inequalities protect us from others, whom we perceive as a threat. #philosophy #inequality #socialinequality #solidarity #TaxFatigue #redistribution #equality #books #recommendedbooks Also check out the "Books, Thought and Society" playlist:    • Libros. Pensamiento y Sociedad