La desigualdad insoportable, la igualdad posible y la acción de los servicios sociales.

This paper analyzes the concept of intolerable inequality as a critical threshold beyond which economic, social, and power gaps cease to be tolerable and become a factor of democratic, social, and ethical destabilization. Drawing on contributions from Piketty, Stiglitz, and Sen, as well as critical Latin American perspectives (Dussel, Quijano, Svampa), it argues that inequality must be understood as a historical and structural phenomenon linked to colonial relations, extractive dynamics, gender inequalities, and global technological transformations. The article also discusses the indeterminacy of the concept of equality and the need to specify its dimensions and subjects, highlighting the difference between “treating people equally” and “treating people as equals.” It argues that social services constitute a strategic field for reducing inequality, as they combine redistributive policies, affirmative action, community strengthening, and capacity building. From this perspective, social services not only mitigate vulnerabilities but also act as agents of social transformation oriented toward a possible, situated, and contextualized equality.