Editorial: Le Monde

• France is experiencing an historical regression undermining the foundations of its social contract.
• Despite leaders' rhetoric about valorising work, innovation, and risk, France has turned back into a society of inheritors, where inheritance is more valuable than work.
• Inherited wealth in France has risen to 60% of the national wealth, up from 35% in the early 1970's.
• Upturn of stock and property markets coupled with degradation of labour income has led to this state of affairs.
• The state has not taken effective steps to reverse this trend.
• The economy of rent does not favor the future, but cultivates an underlying malaise in the society.
• The young generations are being sacrificed, struggling more and more to enter adulthood and own their own housing.
• Work does not provide social upliftment anymore, exacerbating the gridlock of a growingly unequal society.
• The last attempt at tax reform in France was in 2013, but was rebuffed.
• Taxes and charges on work put a brake on wage promotion, while gaps in inheritance taxation favor the well-off.

Conclusion: Ignoring or refusing to address these discords will deepen the causes of French malaise and inequality will continue to intensify.

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