Suchergebnisse

An examination of the distribution of incomes in the light of Pareto's Law. For 22 countries considered at different times, from Athens 6th century BC to France 1962, the distribution of incomes bears out Pareto's conclusions of the constancy of inequality across societies & of the impossibility of supressing inequality by acting upon the social organization. But in using the lognormal law to represent the distribution of income of world populations in developed countries, somewhat developed, & underdeveloped, (1454-1850-1953) there is evidence of the diminution of inequality of the distribution of fortunes from the 19th century into & in the course of the 20th century. However, if inequality has varied, whatever the social organization, its order to size for incomes has varied relatively little. If inequality cannot be eliminated, it can be reduced perceptibly in democratic societies founded on a market economy. 3 Tables, 6 Charts. E. Loomis.

Pollution & congestion are outward manifestations of an acute Ur crisis resulting from the automobilization of society. The car, as a mass-consumption good made possible by cost-reducing technologies such as assembly line production & interchangeable parts, has impinged upon & ultimately transformed the geography & demography of the country. The automobile age largely coincided with the transition from competitive to monopoly capitalism & reflects the impact of the drives toward the accumulation, concentration & centralization of capital on consumption patterns. The private interests that cluster around the automobile industry for their prosperity are quantitatively far more wealthy & powerful than those similarly related to any other set of commodities. The automobile-industr complex includes the car manufacturers, (the most profitable sector of the economy); the oil Co's; the auto servicing industries; the users of highways for profit, esp trucking & taxi firms; the makers of highways, including the construction industry; & the driving public. The decisive impact of automobilization on living patterns has been the obliteration of the formerly sharp dividing line between city & country & the creation of Ur sprawl & decentralized development. Growth under the control of private property in real estate profitability in production once initiated has taken on a dynamic of its own, often contradicting rather than serving the econ & soc needs which have given rise to it. The amorphous aggregate of people, dwellings, cars, roads, & econ units in a more or less continuous & potentially over-expanding geographical area is increasingly wasteful & unworkable from the standpoint of transportation. Improvements in public mass transit & restrictions against driving in the inner city are minimal reforms. If the causal link between the location of econ activity & profit anticipations can be broken, then a rational job pattern & planned residential communities with appropriate pop densities & transportation systems can be built in accord with soc needs. A. Karmen.