Ways to reduce social inequality

In the context of new geopolitical, financial, economic and epidemiological challenges, the issues of ensuring a decent standard of living and quality of life for the Russian population are still a priority in Russia’s domestic policy. The relevance of this problem arouses scientific interest, which is confirmed by the publication of more than fifteen monographic studies over the past five years. The article analyzes the findings of a study published in 2022 in the monograph Standard of Living and Quality of Life of the Russian Population: From Reality to Designing the Future, prepared by a team of authors and edited by V.N. Bobkov, N.V. Loktyukhina, E.F. Shamaeva. The authors of the book - economists, sociologists, specialists in the field of medicine, environmental protection and labor law - presented the results of four years of studying the components, social standards and indicators of the standard of living and quality of life in modern Russia, their qualitative identification and quantitative assessment in the context of excessive socio-economic inequality. The main advantage of the monograph is an interdisciplinary approach to studying the quality of life, which allows for a comprehensive analysis of this indicator of the state of society from the standpoint of economic, social and legal relations. The article notes the structuring of the material, the sequence of its presentation - from theory to methodology and practical recommendations, brevity and accuracy of judgments about the categories under consideration, and a clear perspective of the authors. The novelty of the proposed publication is due to the fact that it investigates new tools of governmental and corporate policy to regulate the standard of living and quality of life, in particular, the presentation of the authors’ concept of a medium-term national program to reduce absolute monetary poverty. These tools are becoming an important step toward reducing social inequality. In practice, this is “designing the future”, as the authors put it, and this is what provides the monograph with both scientific and practical significance.