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SECTION 1 2 3<br />

EXTREME INEQUALITY<br />

In countries with higher levels of inequality it is easier for parents to pass on<br />

their advantages to their children; advantages that less wealthy parents<br />

cannot afford. 219 The clearest example of this is expenditure on education.<br />

Wealthier parents often pay for their children to attend costly private schools<br />

that then facilitate their entry into elite universities, which in turn help them<br />

secure higher paid jobs. This is reinforced by other advantages, such as the<br />

resources and social networks that richer parents share with their children,<br />

which further facilitate employment and education opportunities. In this way,<br />

the richest capture opportunities, which then become closed off from those<br />

who do not have the means to pay. 220<br />

Figure 7 demonstrates the negative relationship between rising inequality and<br />

diminishing social mobility across 21 countries. In Denmark, a country with<br />

a low Gini coefficient, only 15 percent of a young adult’s income is determined<br />

by their parent’s income. In Peru, which has one of the highest Gini coefficients<br />

in the world, this rises to two-thirds. In the USA, nearly half of all children born<br />

to low-income parents will become low-income adults. 222<br />

“<br />

If Americans want to live<br />

the American dream, they<br />

should go to Denmark.<br />

RICHARD WILKINSON<br />

CO-AUTHOR OF THE SPIRIT LEVEL 221<br />

“<br />

FIGURE 7: The Great Gatsby Curve: The extent to which parents’ earnings<br />

determine the income of their children 223<br />

0.8<br />

Intergenerational earnings elasticity<br />

0.7<br />

0.6<br />

0.5<br />

0.4<br />

0.3<br />

0.2<br />

0.1<br />

0<br />

Japan<br />

Pakistan<br />

Switzerland<br />

France<br />

Germany<br />

Sweden<br />

Norway Finland Italy<br />

Denmark<br />

China<br />

Spain<br />

New Zealand<br />

Australia<br />

Canada<br />

Chile<br />

Argentina<br />

USA<br />

Singapore<br />

United Kingdom<br />

20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65<br />

Gini coefficient<br />

Peru<br />

Brazil<br />

In Pakistan, social mobility is a distant dream. A boy born to a father 224 from the<br />

poorest 20 percent of the population has a 6.5 percent chance of moving up to<br />

the wealthiest 20 percent of the population. 225<br />

In many countries, social mobility for women and marginalized ethnic groups is<br />

a virtual impossibility due to entrenched discriminatory practices, such as the<br />

caste system in India, which are compounded by economic inequality. 226<br />

Policies designed to reduce inequality can provide opportunities to poor<br />

children that were denied to their parents. Education, for example, is widely<br />

considered to be the main engine of social mobility, 227 as those with more<br />

48

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