ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on economic and social equality generally and its relation to affluence. Economic and social equality can never be substantially attained in a modern industrial state, whether it has a capitalist, communist or a mixed economy. The exponents of the new definition of poverty declare that relative deprivation can only be cured by the creation of social and economic equality. This follows logically from their basic premise but it involves a drastic change from the notion that poverty can be abolished by establishing a minimum standard of life for the entire nation. In the end, the rights which everyone should and can possess are political, legal, social and civic: the right to vote, to equality before the law, to hold political office, and other rights which prohibit discrimination based on sex, race, religion, wealth or family background.
