The most interesting graph is the 'Child Income Percentile vs the Parent Income Percentile' compared between 1980 and 1940 [Graph D]. The rest can be explained

The most interesting graph is the 'Child Income Percentile vs the Parent Income Percentile' compared between 1980 and 1940 [Graph D]. The rest can be explained away by a general stagnation of real wages. This graph, however, shows clearly a stratification taking shape. There are a two ways to explain this: 1: The wealthy are enjoying artificial advantages to income generation that the less wealthy don't have access to. This would be an erosion of meritocracy in the US between 1940 and 1980 2: In 1940 the more 'naturally' gifted as far as income generation potential were somehow mixed more thoroughly with the rest of the population. The 1980 data simply shows that families are finding their ingrained strata in society. The meritocracy exists but those with more merit are simply rising to the top. Occam's razor would suggest that explanation 1 is more likely since it doesn't require a whole population of people who would be naturally more apt to high income generation to be evenly mixed into almost every other income level than the one where they would rightly belong like oil being inexplicably emulsified and evenly distributed in a cup of water. There is a growing and pervasive trend to believe that explanation 2 is the case. It may be possible but I don't think we can accept that without evidence. The American Dream isn't just a feel good notion. If people are more or less biologically the same as they were in 1940 and there was no unnatural mixing occurring at the time and income can be used as a rough proxy for value creation then the income stratification represents artificial barriers to full productivity that hurts every single one of us. There are people out there -- a huge majority of people according to that graph -- that are not creating their full value potential. That is a picture of a society in decline. [1] https://d2ufo47lrtsv5s.cloudfront.net/content/sci/early/2017/04/21/science.aal4617/F2.large.jpg?width=800&height=600&carousel=1 https://d2ufo47lrtsv5s.cloudfront.net/content/sci/early/2017...