In order to study advances toward equality, we must first examine the most vicious forms of inequality—a daunting task. Then we have to recognize that there can be no Big Bang Theory of equality. It comes in many stages, each viciously fought by the forces of inequality while we laboriously gather the data and political will to support them.
According to a rather widespread fairy tale, legal equality has been definitively established in Western countries since the Enlightenment and the “Atlantic Revolutions”.
Almost everywhere, the equality of rights proclaimed at the end of the 18th century is above all an equality of White men, and especially of property-owning White men.
Piketty, A Brief History of Equality, p. 197
And Christians.
In the US, this comes from the Declaration of Independence, which has, however, no legal force whatsoever. In France, it was the abolition of aristocratic privileges on August 4, 1789, which has, however, no legal force on private property “rights”.
The outline of millennia of oppressions is well known, including the principle known as the Fool’s Gold Rule.
He who has the gold makes the rules.
Most of this book is about inequality, and in particular about the bogus political theories undergirding them, including putting property rights above human rights, Reaganomics, and insisting on unregulated “free” flow of capital. For each case, Piketty traces some of the history of efforts to overcome these abuses, and makes suggestions for the future based on collected data.