The case for more social equality
The Equality Trust has just released its fourth quarterly Research Digest. This Digest deals with the relationship between high income inequality and low levels of social mobility. The main points are as follows:
- Social mobility is higher in societies with smaller income differences between rich and poor.
- If we want our children to have equal opportunities in life, reducing income inequality is the mostimportant step we can take towards achieving that goal.
- London School of Economics researchers and the OECD demonstrated separately that social mobility in Britain is worse than in comparable rich market democracies.
- Britons in their early forties have lived in a more unequal country and experienced less equality of opportunity than their fathers experienced.
- The widely respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) commented in a comprehensive review of the academic literature: “[it is] likely to be very hard to increase social mobility without tackling inequality.
You can read the full analysis here.