According to the Observatory of inequalities, the school “does not sufficiently reduce” the gaps between executives and workers.
Inequalities “remain gaping” in France between the popular and wealthy classes, in terms of income but also of heritage, academic success and even health, affirms the Observatory of inequalities in a report published Thursday, June 8. The organization is alarmed by a dangerous “social fracture” for democracy.
“What is shocking is the gap between public discourse on equal opportunities and reality”, said at a press conference one of the two authors of this report, Louis Maurin, director of this independent body which draws up an inventory of inequalities in France every two years. In recent years, public debate has focused above all on inequalities linked to skin color, age or gender, to the point that the analysis “in terms of social positions” may have seemed “disqualified”, he lamented, denouncing the“hypocrisy” politics.
School “does not reduce enough” social inequalities
According to this report, the richest 10% earn nearly three times as much as the poorest 10%. In addition, executives are also much less affected by job insecurity and poor housing. They suffer less from certain health problems, to the point that a manager “can count on six additional years of life” compared to a worker.
There “social fracture” is also clearly felt at school, which certainly “does not increase inequalities”but “don’t reduce them enough”. Between 2010 and 2020, the proportion of children of workers or employees having obtained a bac+5 level diploma doubled, from 6 to 13%, but that of the children of executives and intermediate professions also, from 22 to 40%.
Despite the decline of the working world observed for at least 30 years, the differences between social classes “remain a powerful driver of fracturing” and therefore tensions in society, insist the authors of the report. They call for a debate on a fairer redistribution of wealth, but without focusing on a “handful of super-rich”because in this case “we will not have settled anything at all”according to them.