Zygmunt Bauman is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds and one of the most-read living sociologists. This short book deals with the unequal distribution of riches in today’s world. One of the most common assumptions is that the best way to help the poor out of poverty is to let the rich get richer. Then the rich will fix the economy, and if the economy functions well it’s good for all of us. Like that, the wealth of the few ends up by benefiting everyone. The author scrutinises this assumption and dismantles it piece by piece. At one point he says, “The enrichment of the rich does not ‘trickle down’ even to those located in their closest vicinity in the hierarchies of wealth and income – let alone to those further down the ladder” (pp. 41-42). He goes on, “The celebrated names cropping up whenever the ‘trickle-down’ arguments are heard serve as fig leaves to cover up the tacit, unwritten collective insurance policy which the elite of the super-rich have managed to secure for themselves whatever their performance...” (p. 43). From the point of view of balanced argument, the data offered by Bauman tend clearly to answer the title’s question in the negative. His criticisms of consumerism and individualism are less extreme in their reasoning. Readers would need their own standards of judgment and some knowledge of economics and sociology to add depth to Bauman’s statements.
F. B. (Belgium, 2016)