Introduction
Author: Brij Mohan (Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge)
Keywords:
How to Cite: Mohan, B. (2023) “Editor’s Note”, Social Development Issues. 44(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.3998/sdi.3707
“No, King Charles III won’t pay any inheritance tax on his massive gain,” “NPR Editor Bill Chappell reported.”1 “H[e]should get ready to abdicate,” Conor Friedersdof, surmised, in The Atlantic.2
America leads in the rise of gerontocracy. The richest people easily evade income tax while commoners, both poor and rich, suffer the tax burden. This feudal-colonial practice sustains archaic institutions—a major cause of perpetual inequality. Progressive income tax helps egalitarian policies so crucial for the foundation of a civil society free from the burden of rapacious traditions.
The issues in social development emanate from ossified institutions, structures, and behaviors which perpetuate inequality. Thomas Piketty’s new book A Brief History of Equality (2022) signifies redistribution of wealth with egalitarian taxation to solve this problem universally. Remnants of colonial-imperial forces continue to reinforce military-capitalist domination at the cost of social-environmental justice.
Piketty finds it “totally insane” to believe that growth will solve the world’s economic disparity.
While Britain and much of the world gloriously mourned the death of The Queen, many South Asian countries remained mixed about the Imperial domination. “Shortly before the Queen’s death, Uju Anya, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, called the monarch ‘the chief monarch of a thieving, raping, genocidal empire’ on Twitter and wished her an ‘excruciating’ death.”3 We don’t enjoy anyone’s demise. Stoic sympathies speak for themselves. The world is full of contractions. Euphemistically, “It’s a wonderful world.” Genocide, apartheid, and bigotry continue to ravage humanity—not to speak of “climate carnage.”4 “[An] economically illiterate junta is running Myanmar into the ground.5” These yawning global disparities—The Third Rail of Social Development—present insurmountable difficulties to revisit our purpose and goal. Peaceful protests are not enough if the Global South must be saved from the Global North. Russians are defying the authoritarian Putin. The revolt of Iranian women—burning of their Hijabs—is no small cry.6
“Peace built on the oppression of women is no peace at all.”7 Social Development Issues (SDI) seeks to offer a few good articles in this last issue of volume 44, 2022. A conservative Supreme Court has lately unleashed an unabashed attack on women’s fundamental rights. Mashooq Salehin and Vijayan Pillai show how the ban on abortion impedes human development. Likewise, many mundane issues with wider application are discussed within the “social development paradigm.” Current social movements, corporate social responsibility, and “manual scavenging” constitute important foci in the reconstruction—“second founding.”
SDI’s next issue, volume 45, is designed to highlight thematic problems of global inequality (Guest Editor, Christian Aspalter). You are encouraged to submit your contributions to this Special Issue.
Brij Mohan
Editor, SDI