Distribution is called the distribution of one or more elements. Obviously, the term admits a wide variety of uses, the most frequent being the economic one. From this perspective, the distribution would refer to the way in which the economic income of a certain social group is distributed among each of its members.
The distribution of income is extremely unequal if we refer to the world population. The regions with the largest incomes are those belonging to Western Europe, North America, Japan and certain areas of Southeast Asia. As a counterpart, some regions of Africa and Latin America are those with low-income populations. This inequality that is appreciated worldwide can also be glimpsed within each nation, being able to establish a ranking of more and less unequal countries. Thus, it is common to observe a deep asymmetry between the higher income strata and those with the poorest resources in most of the Third World nations, with emphasis on the nations of Africa and the Latin American subcontinent.
Many theoretical postulates have tried to analyze these questions. Among the most radical can be counted Marxism, who saw in these inequalities a reflection of an underlying class struggle. Thus, the incorrect distribution of income had its correlate in the class to which they belonged and which was determined by their access to the means of production. That capital-owning class reinvested its profits in technical advances and improvements to the production system that made labor less necessary and cheaper. This process resulted in economic crises because, due to unemployment and low-income wage earners, it was impossible to sell the goods produced. The valuations of Marxism became obsolete, but many of its criticisms served to think about solutions to the conflicts raised.
On the other hand, some theorists argue that liberalism would allow, by a kind of "decantation", a better distribution of income at the population level. Those who advocate this concept postulate that, thanks to individual effort with minimal regulation of the established power, the economic growth of each person would be allowed, which would lead to greater investments and, with it, to the generation of more sources of work and the possibility exponential to produce more resources. In any case, these ideas actually collide with the proposal of an equitable distribution, since this model gives rise to a tendency to accumulation on the part of the most favored sectors, to the detriment of those with less accessibility to financial and economic resources. .
The only actor that can intervene avoiding unequal distribution is the State. This can be done through unemployment insurance and employment subsidies that increase consumption capacity. Parallel, the State is in charge and the only possibility to alleviate the negative consequences of an incorrect distribution of income. Thus, it corresponds to the latter to provide health, education and security to the most underprivileged sectors. To this end, the State gathers funds through taxes of different kinds, the distribution of which must be equally equitable. In general, activities that are not essential to the life of the population are subject to higher taxes (luxury goods, tobacco, etc.). With this goal in mind, the State obtains the appropriate resources for its investment in those areas that make it possible to improve the conditions of the least favored individuals, with special emphasis on the provision of health, on equal opportunities in education, on the greater labor supply and in the so-called "monopoly of force", which defines consolidated modern states.
Consequently, the economic concept of distribution admits multiple edges, but there is a modern tendency to try the greatest equity in all the variables involved in its performance. It is thus interpreted that, independently of the macroeconomic model, a fair distribution of the different parameters, but especially a correct distribution of opportunities, constitutes the best alternative to improve the quality of life of the population, within the framework of the collaboration of the individual effort of each citizen and the transparent action of the State.
