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> upward mobility in German society is very low compared to the US

This appears to be untrue: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Social_Mobility_Index

Germany ranks 11th on social mobility, while the us ranks 27th.

I'm not sure why this would be called "social mobility index":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Social_Mobility_Index#M...

I would argue this measures governments services available to the poorest for free + to some extent how successful those government services are in fixing social issues (like teen pregnancy, "checked out" NEET youngsters, ...)

This Doesn't seem to me to at all measure how likely you are to get ahead if you try hard enough.

You can't get ahead if you get dragged down the bottom all the time, though. However, the chance of outsized success in the US if you make it, is larger though. I guess because of access to a larger market, but probably cultural factors, too.

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