ABSTRACT
Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that complete equality was not possible but that society should aim to make people more rather than less equal. 'Precisely because the force of circumstance tends always to destroy equality, the force of legislation ought always to tend to preserve it'. From the late-1970s, the ideological climate changed under the influence of globalization and heightened competition between states for capital. The result is an endless race to the bottom, leading to cuts in corporate tax rates and exemption of interest, dividends and other financial revenues from taxes to which labour incomes are subject. Thomas Piketty's stark equation between war and egalitarian public policy is called into question also by the labour history of countries besides his native France. He acknowledges that the deliberate weakening of the power of labour has been a crucial component of the neoliberal revolution that commenced with the victories of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 and Ronald Reagan in 1980.
