Poverty Traps, Relative Deprivation and Social Justice

This article tries to provide comprehensive responses to two crucial questions in the realm of poverty and inequality. First question is that why poverty in some societies and among some groups is sustainable? Second, to what extent and how far a society tolerates inequalities and when does it reject them, once they become sources of social resentments? To provide a comprehensive response to the first question, an analytical account of the poverty traps is provided. And in order to provide a response to the second question, relative deprivation is provided. The article is concluded by providing a social contract framework for social justice, and presents some indicators for combating sustainable poverty and social inequalities.