A/HRC/29/31 his whole life.”11 Friedrich Hayek, known for his aversion to government intervention to achieve more equality, wrote approvingly of a demand at the “height of the classical liberal movement … that all man-made obstacles to the rise of some should be removed, that all privileges of individuals should be abolished, and that what the state contributed to the chance of improving one’s conditions should be the same for all”.12 13. The problem in many societies is that poor people start the “race of life” at a disadvantage and will meet many more hurdles on their way than others. 13 The situation of high inequality in many countries today certainly does not conform to the idea of “fair equality of opportunity” proposed by John Rawls in A Theory of Justice, who wrote: “More specifically, assuming that there is a distribution of natural assets, those who are at the same level of talent and ability, and have the same willingness to use them, should have the same prospects of success regardless of their initial place in the social system, that is, irrespective of the income class into which they are born.”14 14. 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 onesixth 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).”15 15. In principle, economic inequalities that begin at birth can be corrected during one’s lifetime. But research has shown that starting life at an economic disadvantage makes it much more likely that one also ends life at an economic disadvantage. 16 A study based on data from a subset of OECD countries found that intergenerational mobility differs strikingly between countries: In countries like Finland, Norway, and Denmark the tie between parental economic status and the adult earnings of children is weakest: less than one fifth of any economic advantage or disadvantage that a father may have had in his time is passed on to a son in adulthood. In Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States roughly 50 percent of any advantage or disadvantage is passed on. 17 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 6 “Speech at New Haven, Connecticut”, in Roy Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 4 (New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 1953). See F.A. Hayek, Collected Works of F.A. Hayek: Constitution of Liberty (Taylor and Francis, 2013), p. 155. “Income inequality specifically is one of the most visible aspects of a broader and more complex issue, one that entails inequality of opportunity. This is a universal challenge that the whole world must address.” (See the synthesis report of the Secretary-General entitled “The road to dignity by 2030: ending poverty, transforming all lives and protecting the planet’” (A/69/700, para. 68).) See John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1971), p. 63. See Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press), pp. 408–409, 421. “The gap between formal and real equality of opportunities has deep economic roots and far-reaching economic consequences. Inequality that begins in the cradle is not easily redressed through social mobility.” (See Trade and Development Report 2012, p. 40.) See Miles Corak, “Income inequality, equality of opportunity, and intergenerational mobility”, Discussion Paper No. 7520 (Bonn, Institute for the Study of Labor, 2013), p. 4.