The IDS 50th Anniversary Conference held in July 2016 revisited the age-old debate concerning the changing nature of the relationship between states, markets and society in relation to the problem of inequality. The deliberations at the conference made it clear that inequalities go beyond disparities between households in their income or asset ownership, to intersecting inequalities along the lines of age, gender, location and access to public services such as healthcare and education. This article addresses three areas of inequality that were given pre-eminence at the conference, namely, gender inequality, youth unemployment and social protection. The conclusion recaptures the main argument and suggests a rebalancing of power between states, markets and society because the key problem is that market forces have become too dominant.