№ 5 - 1999
Inozemtzev V.L.
Social Inequality as a Problem Inherent in the Formation of Post-Economic Society

Using extensive material of U.S. realities, the author of the article, Director, Moscow Centre for the Study of Post-Industrial Society, considers the processes of the formation of two new social groups in post-industrial society (to figure in place of the working class and bourgeoisie): the upper one, professing post-material values and occupied in spheres of high technology; and the lower one, motivated materially and occupied in mass production. It is for the first time in history, the author notes, that belonging to the ruling class turns out to be conditioned not by the right of disposal of a facility, but by the ability to make use of it. Increasing poverty of the lower class being meanwhile formed, becomes the main social problem.