ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a new framework for understanding inequality while being mindful of systemic escalating inequality arising out of low returns on labour vis-à-vis capital (permanent systemic inequality). Here, an elaborate theoretical distinction has been made between demand, want and need in support of each according to his/her ability, to each according to his/her need, as opposed to the neoclassical theory of demand—the relationship between consumer demand for goods and services and their prices (being willing and able to buy at a given price in a given time period)—which is intrinsically inequalising. This chapter also demonstrates the factors needed for a welfare state in the trajectories of debates on the necessary and sufficient conditions for sustained and rapid improvements in living standards, exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis. This chapter looks into people’s struggles and aspirations for equality, human dignity and social justice, and proposes a wide range of redistributive fiscal tools for translating those normative principles as a part of developmental needs and state-building.
