Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 14

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From the perspective of equality of opportunity, it is problematic if extreme economic inequalities begin at birth. Mr. Piketty has shown that for those born in France between 1910 and 1960, "the top centile of the income hierarchy consisted largely of people whose primary source of income was work". For those born in France in the 1970s, and even more for those born later, things are different, however. Mr. Piketty has written that the "top centile of the social hierarchy in France today are likely to derive their income about equally from inherited wealth and their own labor". Even more problematic is Mr. Piketty's finding that nearly one-sixth of those born in France today "will receive an inheritance larger than the amount the bottom half of the population earns through labor in a lifetime. (And this group largely coincides with the half of the population that inherits next to nothing)."
Legal status
Non-negotiated soft law
Body
Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
Document type
Special Procedures' report
Means of adoption
N.A.
Person(s) affected
  • N.A.
Year
2015
Paragraph type
Other
Paragraph number
14