> I happen to live in a country (the US) that provides the greatest degree of upward mobility in the world
As far as my short search has lead me this appears not to be true. US doesn't seem to be in top 20 which is dominated by Europe.
As far as my short search has lead me this appears not to be true. US doesn't seem to be in top 20 which is dominated by Europe.
* inter-generational upward mobility -- are you richer than your parents?
* intra-generational mobility - has the older you climbed to a higher position than the younger you?
For the above, it makes a difference whether you are talking about absolute gains or relative gains (e.g. bottom quintile to top quintile).
And also whether you are measuring income or wealth and if income, whether you are looking at after tax income or market income. With wealth, it depends very much on how you measure things like government benefits.
Finally, mobility measures need to be taken across the business cycle rather than just, this year versus 5 years ago.
It's not a simple issue, and I've seen studies that go either way on this, but I'm always interested in getting more data on this important topic.
Upward mobility, richness of life, and success, has absolutely nothing to do with how much better other people did in the same time period. I went from $20k debt and dropping out of college to $300k savings. Am I supposed to be angry that someone I know went from a $3M inheritance to $300M? Why should I care? My own upward movement hasn't been hampered by theirs. I don't need anything they have, or envy it. If anything, they envy me because I earned what I have.
In real terms, I've already moved up far more than they have. This idea that an increasing divide makes upward mobility for the lower echelon less meaningful is just totally false. The difference between being able to buy a place versus the difference between how big a place you buy is only one of degree. The difference between $300k and $300M is aesthetics. But the difference between $3k and $30k is survival.
So when I'm talking about upward mobility in America, I mean getting out of debt and poverty... getting to a place where you can have a good life. Too many people think it means comparing yourself to or becoming Elon Musk. And that's a credit to America too, because they've never lived in another country where even basic survival is difficult.
Please do post your source. In my own experience and research, that is very limited in Europe.
I would argue that there are actually more disincentives than incentives for class mobility in Europe (which is where I live).