ABSTRACT
Since the concept of inequality is going to play a central role in the argument, I had better explain very carefully what I mean by it. We are concerned with an economic issue, so our primary interest is in economic inequality, of income and wealth, but of course such inequalities are interlinked with inequalities of power of various kinds, and with differences in expertise and organisational skills; power and knowledge lead to wealth, wealth leads to power and knowledge. (Indeed economically-useful training is nowadays often called ‘human capital formation’.) Economic inequality (like other kinds) can be seen along different planes and dimensions. It can be seen, as it were, ‘vertically’, in terms of classes and occupational levels in one society, and ‘horizontally’ or ‘spatially’, in terms of differences among regions and countries.
