Understanding Social Justice as a Model for Economic Growth

by Martin Gray Content Writer

The search for social justice, which offers every man and woman at work the possibility of freely claiming and with equal opportunities their fair participation in the riches that they have contributed to creating, is as strong today as when the ILO was created 1919. The global economy has grown on a scale that is without historical precedent.

With the help of new technologies, people, capital, and goods move between countries with such ease and speed that they have created an interdependent global economic network that affects practically everyone on the planet.

In the United States, economic thought leaders have brought arguments relating to the two-fold impact of globalization. In the view of Rick L. Weddle, an economic thought leader, entrepreneur, lecturer and c-suite executive of many prominent organizations: “globalization has provided opportunities and benefits for many people, but at the same time, millions of workers and employers around the world have had to face new challenges. The globalized economy has displaced workers and companies to new destinations, brought sudden accumulations or transfers of capital, and caused financial instability, all of which contributed to the 2008 world economic crisis.”

Despite its undeniable benefits, globalization did not translate into a new era of prosperity for everyone. Despite strong economic growth that had generated millions of new jobs from the early 1990s to the 2008 crisis, income inequalities also increased dramatically in most regions of the world. The individual distribution of wages has become even more unequal, with a growing gap between the 10 percent of workers who receive the highest wages and 10 percent of those who receive the lowest wages.

Furthermore, six years after the 2008 economic and social crisis, the world employment situation remains uneven. If some advanced economies have managed to recover part of the lost jobs, other economies still face significant challenges concerning their market. Work and social prospects continue to deteriorate. From an economic point of view, indicators show that profitability and equity markets have rebounded in most countries. Executive salaries are also increasing after they stagnated as a result of the crisis.

Therefore, the crucial question is how to get the benefits to result in productive investment. More than 30 million jobs are still needed for employment to return to pre-crisis levels. The negative impact of the global crisis on labor markets and the uncertainty and elusiveness of the recovery raises the need for inclusive growth.

As inequality leads to decreased productivity and breeds poverty, social instability and even conflict, the international community has recognized the need to establish some ground rules for the game to ensure that globalization offers fair opportunities for all.

According to the proposition of Weddle, a sustainable development model is one that is based on three dimensions: social, environmental, and economical. The order of the factors here does alter the product. Any development model to be sustainable must first look at the human being, second at the environment in which that human being is based, and thirdly at the equitable distribution of economic income. Here equitable means social justice.

Poverty and inequality

Around 1,300 million people suffer from multidimensional poverty. Half of them, 650 million, are under the age of 18; 736 million still live on less than USD 1.90 a day (extreme poverty) as they lack access to food, clean water, and basic sanitation. The possibility of women falling into extreme poverty is high, due to unequal access to paid work, education, and property.

Zero hunger

Unfortunately, hunger and malnutrition continue to be great obstacles to the development of many countries. Eight hundred twenty-one million people suffer from chronic malnutrition, often due to environmental degradation, drought, and biodiversity loss. More than 151 million minors are poorly developed, and of these, 90 million are dangerously low. Malnutrition and food insecurity appear to be increasing worldwide.

Defeating hunger passes, above all, through the agricultural sector. This task involves promoting sustainable agricultural practices through support to small farmers and ranchers and equal access to land, technology, and markets.

Health and social welfare

The world is not on track to achieve the health-related SDGs. Progress has been uneven, both between and within countries. At least 400 million people do not have access to basic health services, and 40% lack social protection. More than 1.6 billion people live in fragile environments where protracted crises, combined with poor health services, present a significant challenge to global health. More than 15 million HIV patients are still awaiting treatment. Now appears COVID 19, which, as usual, is taking over the most fragile people in the economic field.

Quality education

Progress in education has also been difficult in developing regions due to high levels of poverty, armed conflict, and other emergencies. Above all, ongoing armed conflicts have increased the proportion of boys and girls who do not attend school, constituting a worrying trend. Fifty-seven million primary school age remain out of school. Approximately half of all out-of-school children live in conflict-affected areas. One hundred three million young people in the world lack basic literacy skills, and more than 60% of them are women. Globally, 6 out of 10 children and adolescents do not achieve a minimum proficiency level in reading and mathematics

Gender equality

Ending all forms of discrimination against women and girls is a basic human right, but it is also crucial for sustainable development. Empowering women and girls has been shown time and time again to have a multiplier effect and help promote economic growth and development globally. Guaranteeing women equal rights in access to economic resources, such as land and property, are fundamental goals to achieve progress in sustainable development. There are still great inequalities: Women are systematically denied the same labor rights as men. Sexual violence and exploitation, the unequal division of unpaid work, and discrimination in decision-making in the public sphere are major obstacles that persist.

On average, globally, women earn only 70% of what men earn doing the same job. One in 3 women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence. Women represent only 13 percent of landowners. Around the world, nearly 750 million women and girls alive today married before turning 18. Only 24% of all parliamentarians in the democratic world are women.

Human rights above all

To continue boosting economic growth without social justice, showing it as the ultimate goal of government success is to deceive people. Once again, in the social and environmental dimensions, it is due.

It must be made clear that sustainable economic development puts human beings at the center, surrounds them, first, with a healthy environment and, later, intervenes with the force of the State so that the fruits of economic development can provide equitable benefits.