Movin' On Up? Not In America

Visitors from certain websites may be looking for yesterday's post Ignorance Is Bliss — Dave

As usual, the New York Times is "ahead of the pack" on the issue of upward mobility in America. In case you didn't know it already, there's very little upward mobility in America.

WASHINGTON — Benjamin Franklin did it. Henry Ford did it. And American life is built on the faith that others can do it, too: rise from humble origins to economic heights. “Movin’ on up,” George Jefferson-style, is not only a sitcom song but a civil religion.

But many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage...

“It’s becoming conventional wisdom that the U.S. does not have as much mobility as most other advanced countries,” said Isabel V. Sawhill, an economist at the Brookings Institution. “I don’t think you’ll find too many people who will argue with that.”...

At least five large studies in recent years have found the United States to be less mobile than comparable nations. A project led by Markus Jantti, an economist at a Swedish university, found that 42 percent of American men raised in the bottom fifth of incomes stay there as adults. That shows a level of persistent disadvantage much higher than in Denmark (25 percent) and Britain (30 percent) — a country famous for its class constraints.

Meanwhile, just 8 percent of American men at the bottom rose to the top fifth. That compares with 12 percent of the British and 14 percent of the Danes.

No argument here. But I am often accused of being too negative on this blog. Let's look at the bright side. We've got plenty of downward mobility in America, a situation which might be best illustrated by looking at enrollment in our growing Supplemental Nutrutional Assistance Program (SNAP), also know as food stamps.

45.8 million Americans were receiving food stamps as of August, 2011. Half of them were children.

Back to the New York Times—

Despite frequent references to the United States as a classless society, about 62 percent of Americans (male and female) raised in the top fifth of incomes stay in the top two-fifths, according to research by the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. Similarly, 65 percent born in the bottom fifth stay in the bottom two-fifths.

America? A classless society?

Bonus Video — The Jeffersons

 

Comments

[xraymike79]

I see America becoming even more lopsided in its wealth distribution as we march on. So they'll be plenty of gist for those who are prone to thinking about such issues. Humans seem to be convinced that Capitalism is a fair and just system that divides up the spoils of the game to those who feel they have earned it --- the top 0.1%. Nevermind that money buys control over the levers of politics, regulatory bodies, and legal systems at the expense of everyone else who is not on the inside track.