Upward mobility is often held up by conservatives as a consolation prize for income inequality. It’s easier to accept the widening chasm between rich and poor if you believe that the poor have a good chance of bettering their lot.
Americans cherish idea of upward mobility. The Horatio Alger story is part of the national mythology. Faith in upward mobility helps reassure us the system is a meritocracy, despite massive inequality. Unfortunately, this credo also bolsters moralizing against the poor. If climbing the class ladder is a relatively straightforward process for the driven and the capable, then those who fail to ascend must lack drive or ability.
But multiple streams of research show that Americans have significantly worse odds of bettering themselves than Canadians and Europeans.
At least five large studies in recent years have found the United States to be less mobile than comparable nations. A project led by Markus Jantti, an economist at a Swedish university, found that 42 percent of American men raised in the bottom fifth of incomes stay there as adults. That shows a level of persistent disadvantage much higher than in Denmark (25 percent) and Britain (30 percent) — a country famous for its class constraints.
Meanwhile, just 8 percent of American men at the bottom rose to the top fifth. That compares with 12 percent of the British and 14 percent of the Danes.
Despite frequent references to the United States as a classless society, about 62 percent of Americans (male and female) raised in the top fifth of incomes stay in the top two-fifths, according to research by the Economic Mobility Project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. Similarly, 65 percent born in the bottom fifth stay in the bottom two-fifths. [NYT]
Conservatives quoted in the Times tried to soften the blow by pointing out that it’s easier for Danes to move up because even the richest slice of society isn’t that much richer than the middle class and even the poorest Danes aren’t as desperately deprived as the poorest Americans.
This is true, but it bolsters the liberal contention that greater equality facilitates upward mobility. It’s just common sense. It’s harder to dig yourself out of a pit and scale a mountain than it is to start at groundlevel and walk up a hill.
The “consolation prize” model of upward mobility is itself a myth. Extreme inequality stifles upward mobility.
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