Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

This is a synthesis of the 2018 report on world inequality, coordinated by Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman in WID – World Inequality Lab. At a time when many social conquests are under threat, reading this report is essential. The unequivocal diagnosis it provides helps us give the lie to the dominant discourse.

The findings are scathing: world inequality has sharply increased since the end of the 1970s. As they favour the richer social segment of society to the detriment of the poorer classes, the neoliberal policies that have been implemented ever since then could only aggravate inequality.
The situation has reached such a critical point that we must urgently suggest more radical solutions than those proposed in the report. Breaking away from the capitalist system is essential, both for a fairer distribution of wealth and to be able to face current challenges such as climate change, inequality between ‘North’ and ‘South’, between the ‘Centres’ and the ‘Peripheries’, between genders, cancellation of both public and private illegitimate debt, etc.

Translated by Christine Pagnoulle and Vicki Briault