Tribune. “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”, says article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yet despite this repeatedly reiterated promise, not all young people are equal when they enter adulthood. Being born into a poor family greatly reduces a child’s chances of accessing quality education, health, adequate housing and gainful employment, in short, of enjoying a decent standard of living at home. adulthood.
According to some estimates, the differences in income perceived throughout life between individuals are due, for at least 50%, to factors defined before the age of 18; Nobel Laureate in Economics (2000) James Heckman remember even they are present in reality, for the most part, from the age of 5 years. In the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), some 63% of children whose parents have a high level of education obtain a higher education diploma, while only 15% of children whose parents have not completed secondary school do.
Over-represented youth
These inherited inequalities even affect life expectancy:European Union, 30-year-old men who have not graduated from upper secondary education can expect to live about eight years less on average than those who leave university.
Neither inherited privileges nor poverty are transitory states. On the contrary, they persist for very long periods. Thomas Piketty a calculated that the share of property held in France by the poorest 50%, for example, was 2% in the 19th century, and today it amounts to only 6% of total private property. From researchers in England compared surnames in 1170 and 2012, in relation to the social status of people. They concluded that social status persisted considerably even after two hundred years, and that social mobility was hardly higher today than during pre-industrial times.
There is no fatality here. Solutions exist to break the vicious circle of poverty. Among them, we propose the establishment of a universal minimum income for young adults between the end of secondary education and the age of 25. According to the un, those under 18 make up half of the people living in poverty in low and middle income countries. All over the world, young people are over-represented among precarious and underpaid jobs while they are excluded from many assistance programs.
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