DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH - KEY PEOPLE

Question 1

Weber

Answer 1

Believed that actions in society have multiple causes and effects- unlike (for example) Marxists and Feminists. Unlike postmodernists, Weber believed that there were some structural inequalities that affect people’s life chances. But at the same time, Weber believed that society was made up of our actions, and we have the power to change how society works.

Question 2

Davis and Moore

Answer 2

Believe that inequality is necessary to keep society healthy. Inequality:
- Rewards people with specialised skills that only a few have the ability and talent to have
- Motivates the most able to push themselves
Without wealth, the most talented will be encouraged to not participate as fully as they would otherwise be willing to.

Question 3

Karl Marx

Answer 3

PRIMITIVE COMMNISM large, extended families suited the needs of their members before capitalism developed. People would live in small communities called ‘bands’- similar to tribes- to whom they were distantly or more directly related. All wealth would be held collectively.

Question 4

David Graeber

Answer 4

Argued that modern archaeology shows us that societies don’t develop consistently like Marx suggested; some may follow the pattern he highlighted, but others continue to live communally with private property. Some have private property and then reject it. Marx’s linear stages of development don’t appear to be inevitable, but simply one root amongst many for societies to move on.

Question 5

Slavoj Zizek

Answer 5

Argues that the world’s super-wealthy use their wealth to hide how harmful wealth inequality is for society.
He describes how figures like Bill Gates and Elon Musk offer to give away hundreds of millions of dollars, without recognising that the money has largely been taken from the global working class in the first place- and the amount returned through charitable donation is smaller than the amount taken in the first place.