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I don't have time to read the 63 page document. Can you point me to where it gives statistics on income mobility?
It's all over the document. Example:
Quote:
The rapid growth in average real household market income for the 1 percent of the population with the highest income was a major factor contributing to the growing inequality in the distribution of household income between 1979 and 2007. Average real household market income for the highest income group nearly tripled over that period, whereas market income increased by about 19 percent for a household at the midpoint of the income distribution. As a result of that uneven growth, the share of total market income received by the top 1 percent of the population more than doubled between 1979 and 2007, growing from about 10 percent to more than 20 percent. Without that growth at the top of the distribution, income inequality still would have increased, but not by nearly as much. The precise reasons for the rapid growth in income at the top are not well understood, though researchers have offered several potential rationales, including technical innovations that have changed the labor market for superstars (such as actors, athletes, and musicians), changes in the governance and structure of executive compensation, increases in firms’ size and complexity, and the increasing scale of financial-sector activities.
The document shows that income distribution has been moving more income into the top group while income in all the other groups shrank. There was also no indication that the top group grew larger. Thus, mobility decreased from 1979 to 2007.
I think a lot of the mobility changes that people "feel" in America are very recent in nature. The scholarship on this subject will take a lot longer to catch up to the reality of the day, because something like income mobility involves tracking different cohorts of people longitudinally across time. So quite a bit of the research in that field involves changes between, say, the 1970's and the early 2000's.
It's all over the document. Example: The document shows that income distribution has been moving more income into the top group while income in all the other groups shrank. There was also no indication that the top group grew larger. Thus, mobility decreased from 1979 to 2007.
Your quote has nothing to do with income mobility. You are confusing income equality with income mobility.
The two topics are unrelated.
Income mobility is the measure of how many people move upward financially. It is not a measure of how much the income of the top 1% grew. It also has nothing to do with average incomes. It's individuals improving their financial position.
You could have huge income growth in the top 1% and still have huge income growth in the middle 50%.
Income mobility is the measure of how many people move upward financially. It is not a measure of how much the income of the top 1% grew. It also has nothing to do with average incomes. It's individuals improving their financial position.
Income "mobility" is largely a function of age, which drives human capital (e.g. ppl gain experience as they get older, and then after reaching their physical and mental peak, decline over time, creating a broad earnings curve which ascends for decades and then slides into retirement.
And many ppl move up financially without necessarily increasing their human capital, e.g. teachers and other government workers often get automatic step increases just for putting in another year on the job.
Conservatives are quick to complain about teachers who get paid more and more every year without improving their performance - without deserving a raise - and then celebrate the upward mobility of these overpaid teachers.
I think a lot of the mobility changes that people "feel" in America are very recent in nature. The scholarship on this subject will take a lot longer to catch up to the reality of the day, because something like income mobility involves tracking different cohorts of people longitudinally across time. So quite a bit of the research in that field involves changes between, say, the 1970's and the early 2000's.
How does it "feel"
To be downward bound
Without making a sound
To daily pavement pound
Scowling with a frown
Getting all unwound
Total lies. Education is within reach of almost everyone in America. And millions of us prove it every year. Generally, it's only not within reach of those that are lazy.
But that's off topic. Upward income mobility is alive and well as evidenced by millions of Americans every year.
It's also evidenced by millions of non-Americans....
Total lies. Education is within reach of almost everyone in America. And millions of us prove it every year. Generally, it's only not within reach of those that are lazy.
Sure. A kid in a poor area of Mississippi I am sure has the same educational opportunity as the in the highly funded schools of Great Neck NY.
Nobody said "the same educational opportunity". But that kid does have access to all the education needed to be successful.
So you acknowledge that the rich kid has superior educational opportunities (saying nothing about opportunities from social contacts) compared to poor but conclude that this handicap has no effect on hampering income mobility.
So you acknowledge that the rich kid has superior educational opportunities (saying nothing about opportunities from social contacts) compared to poor but conclude that this handicap has no effect on hampering income mobility.
Correct.
The rich kid has those advantages, but that does not stop the poor kid from increasing his financial standing. Almost anybody can get enough education to be successful.
It's not a handicap at all.
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