The review of journals. In its column "Futures of yesteryear", the journal Futuribles had the excellent idea, in his new issue, to exhume extracts from the novel Rule Britannia (1972), by Daphne du Maurier (1907-1989), which are disturbing news and a very British irony. This prophetic story, published in France under the title Mad (Albin Michel, 1974) occupies a special place in the work of the British novelist. In a political-fiction scenario she situates in 2000, the author of Rebecca tells that England decides to leave the European Community following a referendum. But nothing is going according to plan, and the new alliance that the British Prime Minister intends to form with the United States, Australia and South Africa is going through a merry bloodbath. Let's hope that the Brexit of the real world will be less tragic …
Brexit is partly linked to the perception of greater economic insecurity by the middle classes and the rise of social inequalities. As these developments cross all European countries, the review Futuribles has chosen to publish, in the same issue, an article on inequalities in France. Laurence Boone, chief economist of the OECD since 2018 and former adviser to François Hollande at the Elysée, and Antoine Goujard, senior economist at the OECD, analyze the low social mobility in France. "Only Hungary, among OECD countries, shows more social determinism than France", they observe.
Geographic disparities
In France, inequality of opportunity is perpetuated by the education system. "The French school continues to produce more people with no education or training than the OECD average: nearly 21% of 20-24 year olds were in this situation in 2017", note the authors. This trend is accompanied by strong geographic disparities, depending on the municipality or neighborhood. This observation is all the more alarming because France has built efficient redistribution systems that are not really favorable to the middle classes. If redistribution through taxes and social transfers reduces income inequality, the two economists point to "Inequalities of opportunity" largely linked to the education system.
Former social advisor to Dominique de Villepin when he occupied Matignon, Louis-Charles Viossat draws up, for its part, an inventory of work on digital platforms. He notes a strong gap between their economic weight and their workforce: Amazon employs 650,000 people, Google 100,000 employees, Facebook 35,000, Uber 20,000 – against 2,2 million for Walmart … According to the official, these platforms in the future, must meet two challenges: to better protect workers and to ensure real conditions of competition. In both cases, he writes, it is the recourse to law that will make it possible to bring out solutions.
