A global platform for equal opportunities
Start Equal is founded on a social liberal vision: a world with equal opportunities, not necessarily equal outcomes, but a truly equal and empowered start in life for all. We directly address the “birth lottery”—the profound starting injustice created by inherited privilege that undermines a truly liberal and social market economy.
Framework
Our strategic pillars, starting capital prototypes, and network partners
Analysis
Access our own analysis and policy proposals for discussion.
Background
A collection of media and research articles on inheritance and related topics.
Framework
Our mission is to prototype, promote, and build a global ecosystem for more equal inheritance distribution through a starting capital paid at birth or age of maturity.
We will execute this mission through three core strategies:
- Piloting “Equalstart Capital”: We will run a “Liberty-as-a-Service” platform that provides a trusted service for philanthropists to fund basic capital injections for young people. This is our operational engine.
- Building the Movement: We will unify the global network of starting capital actors and align it with the Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) sector active in international development under the principle that “equal opportunity doesn’t stop at borders,” and multiply our model through spinoffs.
- Advocating for Systemic Reform: We will use the data and stories from our pilots as an evidence-based tool to lobby for the ultimate goal: government-led reform of inheritance schemes that channel the bequest streams of one generation into funding a universal inheritance fund for everyone in the next generation.
Analysis & Proposals
Find our own analysis and policy proposals for a more liberal and just inheritance system below.
Status and Inheritance: Hanno Sauer’s “Class” analysis.
In the book “Class. The origin of top and bottom.” the author Hanno Sauer makes the claim that that economic redistribution—no matter the form: whether a basic inheritance, UBI, progressive
Simone Weil’s (1943) “right to property” against uprootedness
Simone Weil (1909–1943), was a philosopher who died working for the French resistance movement against Nazi-Germany. She is noted for her intense patriotism, Jewish heritage, and Christian spirituality, possessing a
Ordo-liberalism, starting justice and a universal basic inheritance: Alexander Rüstow
Alexander Rüstow, a towering figure in the German Ordoliberal school of thought, developed his ideas while navigating a tumultuous political period. As an opponent of the Nazi regime, he fled
Matthias Erzberger’s ambitious inheritance reform of 1919
Matthias Erzberger, a pivotal figure in early 20th-century German politics, stands out among proponents of inheritance reform due to his background as an active politician rather than an academic, and
The ‘Abolition of inheritance’: Theodor Oelenheinz
In the times of socialist revolutions in post-war Germany, the lawyer Theodor Oelenheinz, son of a bank director from Karlsruhe, grandson of the former finance minister of Baden (Germany) Karl
Disability and Opportunity: Can Inheritance Bridge the Gap?
One of the underlying assumptions in this text has been that financial privilege correlates with other privileges (see for instance our article on Biological Feudalism). The idea, put simply, is that
Background on Inheritance
Find a curated selection of media and science articles on issues around inheritance, wealth and income inequality, taxation, family business sucession, and more below
More than half of all inheritances and gifts go to the richest ten percent
Recent research from DIW Berlin shows how the wave of inheritances increases absolute wealth inequality and that policymakers should counteract this. German private wealth has more than doubled over the
Optimal inheritance tax rate
Scholars estimate the optimal inheritance tax rate to be around 50%–60% or larger. In a 2012 article, Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez find that the optimal inheritance tax rate might
Inheritance is key to the concentration of wealth
The paper by Pirmin Fessler and Martin Schürz, both from the Austrian National Bank, argues that, across all euro area countries, inheritance plays a decisive role in defining the relative
Biased media? Study on how inheritance tax debate is represented in the media
Hendrik Theine and Andrea Grisold from Vienna University analysed 10.000 articles in seven quality media over the last 20 years. They discovered deficits in three core areas when it comes
Reforming inheritance tax systems: Four guiding principles
Inheritance tax systems can play an important role in increasing social equality, yet across the world, these systems often struggle to achieve their intended aims. Étienne Fize, Nicolas Grimprel and
How 100% inheritance tax rates could feed an inheritance fund for everyone
The authors discuss how a 100% inheritance tax regime may be highly contentious but morally justified. The proceeds could go into a general fund from which something like a universal
