For a long time, economic inequality was considered the basis of human relations. The inequality as a challenge was formulated by Karl Marx for the first time. His analysis of capital accumulation reveals that the inequality is unfair and perpetuates the state "the rich get richer the poor get poorer", as it is provoked by the exploitation of the working class by capitalists As time has shown, Marx was right in many respects. Modern scientists confirm that many issues are caused by inequality. Radical inequality is associated with a wide range of negative consequences in the distribution of wealth among the world's population: a circle of poverty, low social mobility, freezing up of social ladder, financial political instability, crime and even environmental issues.

According to the Credit Swiss Global Wealth Report 2019, nearly 1% of the adult population are millionaires who collectively own 44% of global wealth, while 56.6% of the adult population have less than 2% of global wealth. The Wealth Show to Scale infographic shows the difference in wealth between the average household and the 400 richest people in the United States. The gap between the ultra-rich and the poor is only widening. According to an Oxfam study, in 2009 380 super-rich people possessed the same amount of resources and wealth as the poorest half of humanity; by 2018, only 26 richest people owned as much as 50% of the poorest of the world's population.

There are special rules of life that lead to such fundamental differences in opportunities and critical impact on the environment. Poverty is one of the peculiarities of economic inequality, in other words, it is an inability to meet basic needs for food, water and shelter. According to the estimates of the World Bank, in 2020 almost 9% of the world's population will live below the poverty line, living on less than $ 1.90 a day, and the number of people living on less than $ 3.20 a day will reach 23% of the world's population.

Hunger is also a consequence of inequality. The Hunger Project points out that a manifestation of extreme poverty is lack of money to buy or grow enough food. According to the United Nations World Food Programme, today more food is produced than consumed in the world and more than 815 million people (one in nine) are undernourished every day. Global health is closely related to inequality as pointed out by Inequality.org (an authority of the Institute for Policy Study in Washington). There are many indicators of physical and mental health, from life expectancy to infant mortality which are directly related to the level of economic inequality.

The human's relation with the planet was formed at the dawn of the agrarian era. It is deeply rooted in the socio-technological order, namely that humans deplete the Earth's resources as much as possible hoping that the Mother Earth will replenish the losses. The exploitation of natural resources, the rate of economic growth and progress have become standard factors in the development of any industrial country. It was possible when there were less people on Earth than now. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the population began to grow exponentially subsequent to technological progress. Accompanying processes intensified behind them: urbanization, migration, use of energy, water, production and consumption of goods and services, etc. At the same time, the ecological footprint of humanity is increasing along with emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, ocean acidification, large-scale deforestation and loss of biodiversity.

Modern global capitalism, by definition, is built on private ownership of the means of production and is aimed to make a profit, continuous productivity growth and accumulation of capital. In this case, the measure of economic success is GDP as an indicator that reflects the market value of goods and services produced by a country within a year (for example, the latest report by Deloitte ). Global corporations opt for speed and low cost of production, which leads to negative consequences for the environment. Currently, exploitation of nature has no intention to sustain and restore the natural ecosystem. According to a number of eco-activists, commitment of the capitalist economy to unlimited growth leads to escalation of ecological crisis on a global scale.

Environmental issues are exacerbated in other ways. Inclusion of increasing number of people from the middle and lower-income social strata in industrial production and consumption provokes an increase in waste disposal and negative ecological footprint. In order to join the race for increasing profits, producers manifested interest in increasing the volume of output, which leads to overproduction and excess stocks of products, which then have to be disposed of. A separate environmental issue directly related to the current economic model is the use of non-renewable energy sources: coal is used as the main fuel in many countries. It pollutes the atmosphere and water, causes smog in cities and is carried by the wind to neighboring territories.

Culture of consumption is subsequently formed : people not only use the products for practical purposes, but also express specific lifestyle, status, views and values. The desire for consumption, reflecting the individuality of consumer, supports the system of global capitalism, oriented on production growth . At the same time, individualistic consumer culture could have become an indirect reason for disunity and atomization of society, which, in turn, leads to an aggravation of a person's sense of loneliness. The societal consequences of the existing consumer culture are described in the book by Herbert Marcuse "One-Dimensional Man". Local cultures are under the threat of erosion, flattening and even destruction due to marketing: for the sake of promoting on the global market, cultural meanings are turned into product.

Global inequality is clearly manifested in the world monetary system. Money is the universal equivalent of goods and services which starts to play the role of an independent value and becomes more significant than the goods and services themselves. The abundance of money or lack of it determines the access to basic resources (food, water, shelter, health, education) and determines the rate of individual consumption, which has become a significant value of the culture of capitalism. At the same time, most of the money in the world is virtual obligations issued by private banks in order to obtain benefits. As such, they tend to lead to the creation of bubbles that, if burst, threatens to bring drastic crises affecting all areas of life.

The most critical issue of the modern economy is the existence of a free market economy and the consequences of its existence. The free market economy has the following advantages: increased working efficiency, positive effects of competition, such as improving the quality of goods. However, there are also many disadvantages of free market economy. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate, studied these disadvantages . He examines the events of the economic life of the USA after the Great Depression. Based on Keynes's theory, the state had developed tools to control the economy. During the Great Depression, the US economy was stabilized and the crisis was over. Although during the Reagan administration, the government reduced control of the market almost to zero under the pressure of banks. This led to financial bubbles. The dot-com boom was the first bubble, and the following one was the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

Not only the need to earn money is forcing people to work, but also the idea that money will bring happiness. It can be disadvantageous to their physical and mental health resulting in a number of problems in employment: from severe exploitation, failure to respect the workers' rights and alienation of labor due to the phenomenon of bullshit jobs.

Money does not bring happiness explicitly. However, it helps to buy any good to satisfy basic needs (food, shelter), medicine, education and brings self-actualization. It crowds out possible alternatives from public consciousness (for example, understanding their social roles, political involvement, sense of a community). As a recent work of economist Thomas Piketty suggests, neither jobs nor salary can make people happy nor truly rich. According to Piketty's observations, if the rate of return on capital grows faster than the rate of economic growth, wealth is accumulated in the nads of a tiny minority. The process causes social stratification as an inherent feature of capitalism.