Stark reality of the American dream.
For those reality-based fin-de-siecle among us, a recent paper (pdf).
from the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics compared social mobility in developed countries and found the US and UK at the bottom of the pile. If you are born poor/born rich in the US, you are more likely to remain poor/remain rich than in other developed countries. "International comparisons of intergenerational mobility show that Britain, like the United States, is at the lower end of international comparisons of mobility. Also intergenerational mobility has declined in Britain at a time of rising income inequality." The mobility deficit in the US appears to arise from both educational differences and race. In the UK, mainly education. "America and Britain have the highest intergenerational persistence (lowest mobility). Germany is around the middle of the estimates, while the Nordic countries and Canada all appear to be rather more mobile." Socialism = social mobility? Wasn't that supposed to be the best thing about unbridled capitalism? "However, the idea of the US as ‘the land of opportunity’ persists; and clearly seems misplaced." It is annoying when data gets in the way of a good fantasy.
Post a Comment