A world without work: Six scenarios

2 – A society of rentiers

In this possible extension of the preceding scenario, some citizens save from their providential income and pass on an inheritance to their children, and new dynasties of rentiers subsequently emerge. The greater their number, the stronger their growth since inherited wealth forms a new source of savings (which is effectively loaned by the banks to companies investing in robots for production). If such a class of rentiers, owning capital and opposed to redistribution, reaches critical mass, the welfare state will gradually disappear due to lack of political support. Ultimately, society will be divided into two major castes: on the one hand, moderately well-off rentiers, and on the other, a sub-proletariat condemned to destitution who, in the absence of inherited wealth or adequate revenue from the state, will no longer be able to offer any means by which their own descendants might one day become rentiers. “The Germans, who save a great deal, could progress to this type of scenario,” comments Saint-Paul.