3 ms·

Thanks-- that's useful: "More than 90 percent of the entrepreneurs came from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds and were well-educated." I'm curious

by dtran 11y ago

Thanks-- that's useful: "More than 90 percent of the entrepreneurs came from middle-class or upper-lower-class backgrounds and were well-educated." I'm curious about the socio-economic background of the parents as well.

sharemywin 11y ago
be careful because "entrepreneurs" can be people that have to work contractor, part-time work, or the same trade "my father" was in kind of work.
- dtran 11y ago
  That's always the problem with surveys like these. I started the form, then realized it'd be very difficult for me to group everyone into multi-choice categories for job, background, etc.
brudgers 11y ago
My understanding is that there is a very strong correlation between a person's educational and socio-economic attainment and those of their parents. The number that sticks in my head is that parental status accounts for 80%+.
- sandstrom 11y ago
  This is an article I read on the topic. If you are born to parents in the lowest quartile you have ~10% chance of making it into the highest by age 26. For people born in the highest the probability is ~30%. (and if it was random it would, obviously, be 1/4 = 25%) http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21595437-america-no-less-socially-mobile-it-was-generation-ago-mobility-measured http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21595437-america...
  - refurb 11y ago
    But that's moving from the bottom to the top. How about from the bottom to the middle? What percentage never leave their quartile?
    - 0xcde4c3db 11y ago
      On its own, leaving a quartile doesn't say anything about the magnitude of the change, so it's not a very useful measure of anything. Another problem is that because the distribution is so heavily skewed toward the top (for both income and wealth, but more heavily for wealth), dividing the population into equal groups creates a somewhat misleading picture of mobility. A nonlinear breakdown of classes is more reflective of the distribution. In that case we might ask something like how many people move from the bottom 40% to the top 5%.
      - sandstrom 11y ago
        This is a very good point, I totally agree! Although for some questions, e.g. "Can you escape poverty in the US today?" (which could be specified as moving from 1st -> 3rd quartile) this data works. But, for other types of questions, e.g. "Is extreme wealth mostly hereditary?" you'd need a non-linear breakdown of classes.

by dtran 11y ago

sharemywin 11y ago

be careful because "entrepreneurs" can be people that have to work contractor, part-time work, or the same trade "my father" was in kind of work.

dtran 11y ago
That's always the problem with surveys like these. I started the form, then realized it'd be very difficult for me to group everyone into multi-choice categories for job, background, etc.

brudgers 11y ago

My understanding is that there is a very strong correlation between a person's educational and socio-economic attainment and those of their parents. The number that sticks in my head is that parental status accounts for 80%+.

sandstrom 11y ago
This is an article I read on the topic. If you are born to parents in the lowest quartile you have ~10% chance of making it into the highest by age 26. For people born in the highest the probability is ~30%. (and if it was random it would, obviously, be 1/4 = 25%) http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21595437-america-no-less-socially-mobile-it-was-generation-ago-mobility-measured http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21595437-america...
- refurb 11y ago
  But that's moving from the bottom to the top. How about from the bottom to the middle? What percentage never leave their quartile?
  - 0xcde4c3db 11y ago
    On its own, leaving a quartile doesn't say anything about the magnitude of the change, so it's not a very useful measure of anything. Another problem is that because the distribution is so heavily skewed toward the top (for both income and wealth, but more heavily for wealth), dividing the population into equal groups creates a somewhat misleading picture of mobility. A nonlinear breakdown of classes is more reflective of the distribution. In that case we might ask something like how many people move from the bottom 40% to the top 5%.
    - sandstrom 11y ago
      This is a very good point, I totally agree! Although for some questions, e.g. "Can you escape poverty in the US today?" (which could be specified as moving from 1st -> 3rd quartile) this data works. But, for other types of questions, e.g. "Is extreme wealth mostly hereditary?" you'd need a non-linear breakdown of classes.