Inequality, Wealth

Wealth inequality refers to a social stratification of life chances whereby a small number of social groups in the top strata are structurally advantaged to create, sustain, and perpetuate opportunities to hoard the vast majority of valued resources by comparison to other, structurally disadvantaged social groups in the strata below. Wealth inequality is one of the most durable social inequalities experienced by cultural groups, across generations, within and between all societies. Like social inequalities in general, wealth inequality is created by design, by power holders of society, who intend to maintain the status quo and to decide who gets what, where, when, how, and how much.