The New York Times reported unsurprising findings in an article headlined “Harder for Americans to Rise From Lower Rungs”.
Benjamin Franklin did it. Henry Ford did it. And American life is built on the faith that others can do it, too: rise from humble origins to economic heights. “Movin’ on up,” George Jefferson-style, is not only a sitcom song but a civil religion.
But many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage.
To many of us, this is hardly news. We long ago abandoned the fantasy of the American dream being real for more than a small minority. But what surprises me a bit is that some conservatives are acknowledging the truth. Of course, the question is how they intend to tackle this problem, if they indeed see it as a problem at all. One can only hope they have more to prescribe than simply more tax cuts and less regulation.
