Opinion – Michael França: He’s in favor of merit, but lives off his inheritance

The construction of a more just and prosperous country involves the process of reducing the weight of family origin in the results achieved by citizens and, at the same time, empowering them so that a greater proportion of their achievements are in accordance with their choices and efforts.

This does not seem to be the path pursued by Brazilian society or, at least, by part of its elite. The deep inequality seen in the country gives a set of families advantages that distort competitiveness and limit progress.

Many of those born into wealthy families do not need to make much effort just to reproduce the social position achieved by their parents. In certain cases, even the most mediocre would need a lot of effort to significantly worsen their living standards.

However, growing up in a wealthy family and enjoying what money can buy is beyond people’s control. This is part of the birth lottery. Despite this, it is up to the most fortunate to choose the degree of solidarity they will have with those who, by order of fate, were born in unfavorable conditions.

Contrary to what some believe, part of the elite is concerned with helping to create fairer conditions for Brazilian citizens. However, not infrequently, the agreement with policies that can positively transform society goes to the point where it does not start messing with its privileges.

The transmission of resources from parents to offspring is an example of this. Brazil is one of the countries in the world with one of the lowest inheritance taxes. While the average rate here does not reach 4%, in France it is 60%, and in Japan, 55%. This profound difference in rates represents a small illustration of the hijacking of the Brazilian political system by the richest who shape the way we tax in order to serve their own interests.

Furthermore, it is curious to see those who fervently advocate merit and, at the same time, defend privilege and the unmeritocratic receipt of inheritances. It is difficult to find individual effort here, as this powerful part of the capital accumulation of the children of the elite comes, to some extent, from the efforts of their parents, who, in many cases, also inherited a considerable amount of wealth from other generations.

The mere accident of birth should not entitle people to automatically obtain riches which they have not endeavored to form. While many rich people live off inherited properties and will never need to work to survive, millions of Brazilians are starving.

Even if a child of the elite strives and goes beyond the limits reached by their parents, in many cases part of their achievements are still a reflection of an accumulation of capital from previous generations that allowed them to expand their set of opportunities and privileges.

There is no guilt in being born into a rich family, just as the poorest should not be deeply punished for having been born in unstructured environments. However, there are individual and collective responsibilities that few seem to understand in our society.

And, in the end, not infrequently, social concerns in Brazil tend to remain only in the field of discourse. Deep down, consciously or not, there is a great moral dilemma within the children of the elite, since the inertia of the current state of affairs reproduces conditions that tend to systematically favor them.

The text is a tribute to the song “Look a Here”, composed by Ramsey Lewis and performed by the Ramsey Lewis Trio.