In any event, stark inequity continues to coexist with high levels of absolute poverty. As also indicated above, the current crisis can be expected to lead to a slight increase in poverty and inequality. Such a crisis requires that members of society perceive the asymmetries as critical and that the foundations of social integration and consensus have weakened (Habermas, 1989). Regarding subjective opinions, data indicate that perceptions of distributive justice are generally in line with “objective” data, given that in 1997, 2002 and 2007 by far most of the population of Latin America considered income distribution to be unfair or very unfair (80%, 87% and 78%, respectively).