[ExI] Social right to have a living

[BillK]

On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 3:47 PM, Damien Sullivan  wrote:
> http://www.brookings.edu/reports/2008/02_economic_mobility_sawhill.aspx
> and from it:
> http://i46.tinypic.com/ve3go9.png
> Particularly table 1.  42% of American men whose fathers were in the
> bottom quintile stayed there; 26% of Swedish men did so.  8% of US men
> climbed to the top quintile, vs. 11% of Swedish men.  Note that the
> baseline for totally random mobility, no correlation between parent and
> child, would be 20%.
>
> http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2006/04/Hertz_MobilityAnalysis.pdf
> has stuff too, including rising American belief in social mobility, even
> while actual mobility decreases.
> Father-son income elasticity is 0.47 in US; only UK is higher, at 0.5.
> France is 0.41, Sweden 0.27.
> It has 46% of American children born to the bottom quintile staying there.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/opinion/13fri2.html
> more of the same
>
>


Europe isn't one country. As you mentioned, the UK is worse for social
mobility than the US.
(probably for different reasons).

Quote:
Mobility in earnings, wages and education across generations is
relatively low in France, southern European countries, the United
Kingdom and the United States. By contrast, such mobility tends to be
higher in Australia, Canada and the Nordic countries.
-------------------

Giulio was thinking of Italy, I was thinking of the UK.
The reasons for different rates of social mobility are different from
country to country as well. One size doesn't fit all.  Social mobility
also changes over time, as the economy and society changes.
See:  <https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Social_mobility>


BillK