It is obvious that in the conditions of market relations economic factors have a greater influence on human life and its social environment. All people tend to be involved in terms of economic worries, always buy something, consume, produce, sell, and exchange production activities.
Economic relations in a civilized society is always ruled by regulations. Among them, natural rights derived by man from his birth are the most important. For example: the right for freedom of employment and occupation, the right for personal liberty the rights granted to the individual by society: the right to own property, the right to enter into a contractual relationship, the right for freedom of economic activity, the right to a fair distribution of income, the right to inviolability of the home and so on.
Philosophical and economic analysis of the totality of citizens' rights shows that they are based on concepts that are common for both the economy and social philosophy or sociology. These include concepts such as freedom and compulsion, wealth and poverty, the rationality of choice, labor and alienation, desire and need, economic ethics and economic culture, and socio-economic inequalities.
The issue of social and economic inequality is very important nowadays. It has taken a leading role in the whole system of social inequality that reached high levels and continues to grow. Today, we are talking not only about income inequality and about the size of the property, but also the huge differences in the quality of life, nature and conditions of employment, level of education, health care, general culture, and access to social resources.
One of the key indicators that determine the social health of society is the quality of life. Quality of life, as a rule, characterizes the degree of satisfaction of material and cultural needs of the people, the quality of food, the availability and the housing comfort, accessibility and level of health care, education, trendy and affordable clothing, leisure structure, the satisfaction of the nature and content of labor, the environment, the ability to communicate, the level of stress and so on.
Modern society lives in conditions of deepening material differentiation. Sensations of material losses became a very noticeable feature of mass consciousness. It has become one of the main reasons for the continuing pessimism characterizing the changes in the conditions of life of citizens.
Material interests and needs overshadowed not only knowledge, but also hard work, honesty, integrity, compassion, spirituality, and justice. The spirit of consumerism and hoarding replaced or reduced to a minimum the former moral counterweight.
The impact of development and activities of the individual depends not only on the objective needs of society in the implementation of certain of its properties, but also on the level of an environment conducive to self-development and self-realization, of the effectiveness of the social mechanism to ensure a certain degree of demand for knowledge, experience, professional training and creative abilities of the individual. The lack of a reliable social mechanism to ensure the implementation of the objective social needs directly in the activities of specific organizational structures leads to the fact that the exercise of initiative and creativity significantly inhibited the growth of consumerism, the illusions of easy enrichment.
Income stratification of modern society objectively led to the emergence of a relatively small layer of rich people and a huge number of poor. Overcoming poverty became one of the priorities of state policy. Posing this question is understandable, since poverty has a significant impact on all aspects of human life, and in its extreme form leads to the destruction of the individual.
The founder of classical economics Adam Smith in his "Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" stated a distinction between absolute and relative poverty. Absolute poverty exists if people with their work cannot satisfy those needs, which are necessary for the reproduction of life. The relative poverty is a condition in which the family lives already, without any features that are considered unworthy even for a decent man of low rank. The reduction of poverty in the society is based on to the dynamics of economic development: sustainable economic growth raises the standard of living of all classes and strata of society.
At the same time, in industrial era, post-industrial era and the era consumer society, the problem of poverty has not disappeared. Even in highly developed countries, the classic poverty retained, people are living mainly on benefits. Along with them, there was the phenomenon of "new poor", which explains the appearance of interrelated processes of changing the nature of employment in modern societies, and the modification of the old social contradictions between rich and poor within the framework of globalization. Wealth and poverty are the functions of the global economic system. Rich exist side by side with the poor and largely thanks to them. At the same time, there is a process of coagulation of institutions of social partnership between employers and employees. There is a reduction of employment in the traditional sense: a massive shift to work a few hours a week on short-term contracts.
Modern social inequality is perceived as evil and extremely undesirable phenomenon in the society. The relationship between the rich and poor are treated as rather conflictual. The deep social rift leads to the preservation of tension between the polar parts of society.
Taking into account the entire depth of the chasm between rich and poor, a great suspicion of the society to wealth and business, financial and economic circles, it is probably difficult to count on their complete trust and mutual understanding, but a compromise between rich and poor, subject to certain basic conditions is quite possible.
The most important condition of this compromise in today's society is the transition to a socially oriented economy, aimed at increasing the well-being of citizens. The nomination and the gradual implementation of four national projects - health, education, housing and agricultural development aimed at raising the level of living of the population. It can reduce the demarcation line between rich and poor in modern world (Fletcher 2013).
The problem of poverty is one of the biggest in the world, it is understood as the inability to provide an easy and affordable access for most people in the country to living conditions. Large scale of poverty, particularly in developing countries, pose a serious threat not only to national, but also for the world's sustainable development.
The economic growth is the most important factor in solving the problem of poverty. Economic growth leads to an increase in the gross national income, which generates the consumption fund. However, it is possible to maintain the same poverty against the background of good economic growth. This happens due to very rapid population growth and the fact that a small group of sectors with low demand for labor can achieve economic growth (Fletcher 2013).
At the same time in the fight against poverty is important and public assistance to the poor leads to an increase in poverty alleviation, but not to its solution. Therefore, the payment of benefits targeted to the poor must be accompanied by a complex of social and economic measures aimed at their integration into the labor market (training and retraining, and assistance in finding jobs, and others.).
Particularly actual problem of global poverty gives the fact that many developing countries because of low-income levels do not yet have sufficient capacity to alleviate poverty. That is why the broad international support is needed in the world economy to eliminate pockets of poverty. The problem of poverty is receiving increasing attention from the international community.
Global problems are arising from the contradictions of social development. Some of them, such as the problem of war and peace, or health existed before. Global problems are related to the environment, appeared later in connection with the strengthening of the influence of society on the natural environment. Initially, these problems have been isolated, concerned by any particular country, region, and then they become global and acquired vital importance for humanity.
Among the global challenges of society, the problem of differentiation of poor and rich is very important. It is actual not only for developing countries, which are home to nearly a third of the world's population, but also for modern and advanced economies. Therefore, it is the problem of allocation of resources among the people. The problem of social inequality does not disappear throughout human history and it has always remained a headache for politicians, economists and experts of all countries of the world. Today, against the backdrop of the ongoing global political and financial crisis it has aggravated with the new force.
References
Fletcher, M. A. (2013, March 10). Research ties economic inequality to gap in life expectancy. Retrieved January 16, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/research-ties-economic-inequality-to-gap-in-life-expectancy/2013/03/10/c7a323c4-7094-11e2-8b8d-e0b59a1b8e2a_story.html?utm_term=.bb4e381e4cee
