Social mobility is a hot topic right now, with many claiming it is harder today for a person to rise from poverty than in years past. A study on upward mobility released earlier this year, however, challenges that claim.
Heritage Foundation writes,
“[A] groundbreaking new study of upward mobility by renowned Harvard economist Raj Chetty and his colleagues confirm that, ‘children entering the labor market today have the same chances of moving up in the income distribution relative to their parents as children born in the 1970s.'”
The implications of this study are that, contrary to the popular narrative pushed by some, upward mobility in America today is not all that different from upward mobility thirty or forty years ago. The rates have, largely, remained stable.
Heritage Foundation notes, however, that just because mobility rates have remained stable for the past few decades, that does not necessarily mean they are good. On improving upward mobility in America, Heritage writes:
“If there’s one clear trend that’s emerging from the study of mobility, we know that good schools, stable family environments, a culture of saving, and strong civic and social institutions are all strongly associated with better individual and community outcomes. Income inequality? Not so much.”
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