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Comment by onlyrealcuzzo | Hacker News Reader

56% of Americans spend at least one year in the top 10%, and 73% spend one year in the top 20% [1].

[1] https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/evidence-shows-significant-in...

American mobility isn't bad because people can't make it to the top - you can, more so than almost anywhere in the world.

It's bad because a significant portion of people at the bottom stay stuck at the bottom their whole life. Compared to countries in Europe, this is a lot worse.

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That's laughably twisted. Just because someone makes a ton of money in a year (i.e. from inheritance, life insurance, or something else) means absolutely nothing about their wealth.

Inheritance NOR life insurance payouts are considered income by the IRS: https://www.irs.gov/faqs/interest-dividends-other-types-of-i....

Uhh, inheritance definitely counts as income, but I'm not sure what income taxes have to do with what we were discussing. The supposed numbers you pointed to don't come from the IRS.

Can you elaborate or share any studies that show Europe has better mobility opportunities than the US? Also what part of Europe are we talking, Germany? Romania? Portugal or maybe Poland?

That is what the article being commented on, is about, it goes into the results of a study that investigates social mobility per country. More generally, there is also a report by the world economic forum which indexes countries on social mobility, European countries top that list.

Isn't that selling your house to immediately move into another house for the same price?

No, 1031: https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0110/10-things-t...

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