Socio-economic aspects

Strategic Foresight

Evidence shows that, beyond a certain threshold, inequality harms growth and poverty reduction, the quality of relations in the public and political spheres and individuals’ sense of fulfilment and self-worth. | Related Megatrends: Work; Education
Rising economic inequality as a major threat to social stability; the rise of social media has made it easier for people to organise protests, accelerate their speed and scale, shape the narrative of events and put pressure on the international community to act.
| Related Megatrends Technology; Governance; Security
Income inequality cannot be effectively tackled unless the underlying inequality of opportunities is addressed.
| Related Megatrends: Work; Education
Automation and robotization are considerably increasing productivity. However, the related increased profit is not reflected in the income of the workers and even less so in the contributions that corporations make to society. Therefore, policies could align productivity increase with income, tax and social contributions of business, to address unemployment and re-skilling.
A coherent strategy and policy approach could avoid potential disruptive structural changes and to assure that digitalization benefits the majority of the population, encourages further innovation and development, and that it helps address the global challenges.
With increasing demographic imbalances, retirement and fiscal policies could be reconsidered, as well as best way to use the growing wisdom and experience resources of the aging population.
| Related Megatrends: Demography

Originally Published \| Last Updated	25 Mar 2020 \| 29 Apr 2020
Knowledge service \| Metadata	Strategic Foresight \| The Megatrends Hub \| Diversifying inequalities

Competence Centre on Foresight