Some are more equal than others

EQUALITY is a noble aim, but even the most altruistic amongst us does not really want everyone to have the same income and wealth. What we actually want is equality of opportunity.

One way to measure equal opportunity is to look at the relationship between a person’s income and that of her or his parents. If the incomes of the children are always the same as that of their parents – the children of poor parents always end up just as poor, those of rich parents always as rich – then that society is said to have no intergenerational social mobility.