Inequality

We are consistently bombarded with news and hard evidence that the super-rich are getting richer, leaving the rest of us behind. At the same time, many of us live lives that are materially richer than what was possible for most people throughout human history. We've never had it so good, yet it often feels like we don't have enough. This book reconciles that tension, placing the vices of capitalism in conversation with its virtues. Séamus A. Power explores how people comprehend and experience two global stories of economic growth – and what this means for the future of capitalism and humanity in an era of polarization, poverty, and climate change. The volume charts three possible futures for economic inequality and capitalism, and advocates for a world where poverty is eradicated, economic systems are made fairer, and the achievement of human capabilities is fully realized.

Séamus A. Power is an Associate Professor of Cultural Psychology at the University of Copenhagen and is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is currently the President (2024 – 2026) of the American Psychological Association's Division 5 Society for Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology. Séamus researches the scopes, limits, and possibilities for accommodating diverse cultural practices in Western liberal democracies and the development of more ethical forms of capitalism in the era of climate change and political polarization.