The American Dream Is A Myth In These Parts Of America

[xchrom]

http://www.businessinsider.com/equality-of-opportunity-project-map-2014-7

Everybody wants to move up in this world.

A big part of the American Dream is the idea that anyone can make it, regardless of where you start out. Children born to lower income families should be able to make it big, and children of the rich shouldn't automatically have success handed to them.

Of course, this is not always the case.

A study by the Equality of Opportunity Project, a collaboration among a number of prominent economists, found that there's a wide variation in economic mobility across different places in the U.S.

One of the main measures of social mobility in the study is called "absolute mobility" by the researchers. Absolute mobility measures where a typical child who starts out in a family in the bottom half of the income distribution will end up in the income distribution among people his or her age when he or she grows up.



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/equality-of-opportunity-project-map-2014-7#ixzz386IGBU5s

[PowerToThePeople]

1. It basically shows

That the country is shit. "A rising tide lifts all boats" is complete crap and the opposite has actually occurred over vast swaths of the nation. If what we have done was actually working, the whole map would be white.

[Igel]

11. Light pink.

The "absolute mobility" scale that they have looks at two things.

1. It takes the kids at the 25th percentile. The middle of the pack for the lower half of the income distribution.

2. It figures out their average when they grow up, which is a strange kind of thing. With increasing population you're going to have those at the start of their careers and earning less presumably making less than those mid- or late-career and making more. Effects of education can trump this, but then you have the older population being "disadvantaged."

So let's say that "perfect" would be having everybody's income randomly assigned and then averaged by cohort. Then you'd expect the income average for every percentile of the kiddos to be at the 50% mark when they're adults.

But that would be the 45-50 interval, and light pink. For everything to be white would mean that those at the 25% percentile would have to average above average. Meaning that there'd be those who were still under average.

What the map does show is that in general the average does go up. The only group examined starts at the 25% "yard line", and in almost every area is 40% or above when adult.

It's just that while we look at social mobility as the chances of going from the bottom 20% to the top 20%, that's not real likely. But if you look at the chances of going from the bottom 20% to the 40-50% range, they're pretty good. And if your kids are in the 40-50% range, there are pretty good odds they'll wind up in the 70%+ range when they grow up. If kids are in the top 10% there's a good chance they won't stay in that top 10%. (The top 5% and even 10% shows a lot of year-over-year variation.)

Horatio Alger stories are poor --> middle. That's the American dream. It usually doesn't happen in one generation. And sometimes it doesn't happen over 3 or 4. A lot of people think that "rags to riches" is the American dream, and that's much less common, and that entire bottom 20% to top 10% metric is good for PR and producing feelings of outrage, but not a lot more.

[PowerToThePeople]

13. I see that

I had to read the article again to get the numbers moving in my head. There would be no mathematical way to have the whole country in white. The best you could do is 50% which would be light pink.

For some reason I had it in my head that it was comparing something else (purchasing power or inflation adjusted income) rather than just looking percentile along the income distribution curve at a point in time. How can this accurately show how or even if things are improving?

[KurtNYC]

2. The standard of living peaked in the US in 1968

In 1968, the minimum wage was the equivalent of $21.72/hour in 2014 money. 40% of the population now makes less than that.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/13/minimum-wage-productivity_n_2680639.html

[A Little Weird]

10. It was worded strangely

But I read it to say that the minimum wage would be $10.52/hr if the 1968 wage was translated to today's dollars (which would account for inflation but not productivity) and it would be $21.72 if it had actually accounted for increased worker productivity. I think a lot of people in the minimum wage debate only look at the changes in inflation but I think wages should increase as productivity increases.

http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/min-wage1-2012-03.pdf

[KurtNYC]

17. you are right -- $10.52

[RKP5637]

3. The economic system in the US is now severely flawed. For many it's like running a

one mile race when born, but many are already half a mile plus ahead of you when born. One huge delusional fantasy is that a child born into a poor family has the same potential as one born into a wealthy family, that, is utter bullshit.

[raccoon]

4. Anyone who believes that is either hopelessly deluded or willfully believing what they want to

believe, regardless of much evidence to the contrary, because it fits with their world view.

[RKP5637]

7. Yep, propaganda melting ones brain is a travesty ... but that is what we have

going on. Old models are just not working no matter how much they are dressed up. ... but, we have an entire society filled with those benefiting from the old system, and they are not going to let go of anything to improve the system for the masses ... and often they rise to positions of great power to ensure the status quo continues and their wealth is guarded.

[Triana]

5. The American Dream is a myth. Period. Has been for quite some time.

Destroyed by capitalists/robber barons, who now own the gov't and operate it on behalf of themselves. The rest of us: slaves to their operation.

[taught_me_patience]

14. Oh please. There are millions living the American dream right now

There are millions of middle class workers working for these "capitalist/robber barons" making a nice living. There are millions of successful small businesses, providing income and lifestyle for owners.

Hundreds of thousands of small businesses are started every month. Many will fail, but many will be successful. At no point in history has it been easy to start a business and succeed.

[Triana]

16. . . .

[Skittles]

19. you really think this, don't you?

[L0oniX]

6. Ya got to be dreaming to have it.

[dynasaw]

8. Right Now it's More Like the American Nightmare

[valerief]

9. The American Dream is alive and well in the U.S. Any multimillionaire can grow up to be

a billionaire.

[Jenoch]

12. This is evidence that while the DOW Jones is over 1700,

that alone is not a good indicator of how the country is doing economically.

[awoke_in_2003]

15. The American dream (language alert)

[woo me with science]

18. K&R