Secular Structural Processes. Unexpected Results

The economies of individual countries are increasingly integrated with their near – in terms of the main partners in foreign trade – and far environment, that is with countries supplying specific goods, necessary for production. It is impossible to run a business without constant analysis of what is happening outside the country, without keeping an eye even upon very distant areas. This fact is of fundamental importance for any economic policy. The processes taking place in the world economy system must be the starting point for any actions, both adaptive and protective against unfavorable events and processes (e.g. the flood of plastic garbage, transfer prices, etc.). These dependencies limit the scope of the state’s activity, requiring a deep analysis of areas where its involvement is possible and effective. The experience of the old structural policy proves that direct interventions in the sphere of production don’t have any potential left for the future. The issue of where it is possible now to accelerate the development through the influence of the state is one of subjects considered in this book. This part concerns one of the processes that seems to be viewed as a means of regulating activities. It is not so much a part of the economy as it is rather an area of social relations caused by economic mechanisms. This is a problem of growing property and social disproportions that cannot be reconciled with contemporary crucial values such as democracy and social solidarity. Counteracting this phenomenon is not the subject of the analysis presented here. That could be the next stage of work. Here, instead, the task is limited to answering the question: what and why contributes in the economy to the formation of income disparities. The author attempts to determine the reasons for the rich getting even richer and for the systematic reduction of the middle class in terms of income earned, embedded in the production mechanism itself. Particular emphasis was placed on inquiring how the processes of digitization, automation and application of artificial intelligence contributed to aggravation of this phenomenon.