Ambedkar distinguishes physical heredity, social inheritance, and personal effort as sources of inequality

Evidence

A man’s power is dependent upon (1) physical heredity; (2) social inheritance or endowment in the form of parental care, education, accumulation of scientific knowledge, everything which enables him to be more efficient than the savage; and finally, (3) on his own efforts. In all these three respects men are undoubtedly unequal. But the question is, shall we treat them as unequal because they are unequal? This is a question which the opponents of equality must answer. — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 907

Categorization

• DEFINE: A clean three-part analytical framework decomposing inequality into heredity, social endowment, and effort.
• XREF: connects to: Meritocratic theory attributes income inequality to unequal skill distribution. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 316