Excessive Income Inequality In Russia As A Threat To Economic Growth And Societal Security

Abstract

The author makes the case that the growth of the Russian economy in the 2000s was socially detrimental as it was accompanied by an increased inequality of Russians both in terms of current incomes and accumulated wealth. A qualitative analysis of the socio-economic inequality that has developed in modern Russia is carried out in unity with its quantitative characteristics; the factors contributing to inequality in various countries are explained, both objective and influenced by policy. Inequality in income distribution, on one hand, is seen as a possible accelerator of economic growth, and on the other hand, the way it slows the GDP growth down is also revealed. Describing the normal income stratification as accelerating and the excessive stratification as, on the contrary, slowing down the economic growth, the author, by analogy with the Laffer curve, proposes an original income stratification curve, on the basis of which a set of interconnected proposals is substantiated to return the excessive differentiation of Russians to the limits of normality in order to guarantee sustainable economic development and reliable societal security in Russia.