Six generations. In France, that’s how long it would take for a child from a family at the bottom of the income scale to reach the average income. This figure from the OECD illustrates a notion that we regularly hear in public debate: the idea of downgrading.
A notion that appeared in the 1990s. After the Trente Glorieuses, a feeling of increasing inequalities and slowing down of social mobility began to spread in France, particularly within the middle class. “We are now entering a society of relative stagnation, and access to the highest categories is increasingly demanding,” says sociologist Louis Chauvel.
But what does “downgrading” really mean? And above all, is France really suffering from it? L’Express took out its calculator to analyze three key indicators. You can find it in our new long video format, available on our website and all our social networks.