Exceptional Upward Mobility in the US Is a Myth, International Studies Show

[flamingdem]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120905141920.htm

The rhetoric is relentless: America is a place of unparalleled opportunity, where hard work and determination can propel a child out of humble beginnings into the White House, or at least a mansion on a hill.

But the reality is very different, according to a University of Michigan researcher who is studying inequality across generations around the world.

"Especially in the United States, people underestimate the extent to which your destiny is linked to your background," says Fabian Pfeffer, a sociologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR). Pfeffer is the organizer of an international conference on inequality across multiple generations being held September 13 and 14 in Ann Arbor.

"Research shows that it's really a myth that the U.S. is a land of exceptional social mobility."
Pfeffer's own research illustrates this point based on data on two generations of families in the U.S. and a comparison of his findings to similar data from Germany and Sweden. The U.S. data come from the ISR Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a survey of a nationally representative sample that started with 5,000 U.S. families in 1968.

He found that parental wealth plays an important role in whether children move up or down the socioeconomic ladder in adulthood. And that parental wealth has an influence above and beyond the three factors that sociologists and economists have traditionally considered in research on social mobility -- parental education, income and occupation. --- more at link

[Mojorabbit]

1. It is sad to have to acknowledge it. nt

[flamingdem]

2. I think it takes some pressure off of those who wonder

why they didn't achieve what Obama or Julian Castro did .. for example. And it makes a realistic case for why programs are key to greater equality so that some do emerge.

In my own family there were times of wealth and relative poverty, a roller coaster for some. It's not so solid even for those who've been in the US a long time or have some family money. But to really come from nothing, one slip up and you're back down. I don't know how people make it without at least some help for college, etc. impossible really.

[Mojorabbit]

3. kick nt

[Mojorabbit]

4. I wish this had more discussion.

Are we on a steady downward course as a nation? We ARE globally bumping up against finite resources. Are there policies we can put into place to reverse this? Is it even feasible any more?

[TBF]

5. Unfortunately people are holding on to their "American Dream" -

we'll get much farther when folks accept that it is not reality.