3 ms·

> I'm just trying to understand where it is that my family got lucky Really? Did you read the article? Raj Chetty's work on inter-generational mobility should

> I'm just trying to understand where it is that my family got lucky Really? Did you read the article? Raj Chetty's work on inter-generational mobility should make it obvious where your family got lucky. Your grandfather's story resembles many others from that time period. If he was even able to immigrate to the US today, as a contemporary version of his 1940's self, he wouldn't find nearly the same level of opportunity. > Where else on Earth is this possible? I would agree that there are economic benefits to being a global hegemon. Today, however, at least based on measures of social mobility, your family's rise would be more possible in Western Europe than the US.

rayiner 6y ago
Chetty’s work lumps together a lot of different people with very different circumstances. An Asian American born in the bottom 20% has a 25% chance of ending up in the top 20%: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/27/upshot/make-your-own-mobility-animation.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/27/upshot/make-y.... Hispanic men born in lowest 20% have a 15% chance of ending up in the top 20%. That’s a high level of mobility. But black men raised in the bottom 20%, the chances of rising to the top are just 7%. If you compare the US to for example Denmark, you can see that the lack of opportunity is concentrated in the bottom 20%. That is to say, income mobility is similar between the countries for people in the lower middle class, but not at the very bottom: https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/01/05/economic-mobility-in-the-u-s-and-denmark/ https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/01/05/economic-mo... The various data taken together strongly suggests something else is at work rather than the economic system itself. Poor Asians, poor Hispanics, and poor blacks face the same economic system. For them to have vastly different outcomes in terms of economic mobility, the explanation is likely to be something apart from the economic system. What is billed as a matter of economic mobility may well turn out to be more of a story about the criminal justice system, systemic racism, the lasting effects of segregation, etc.

rayiner 6y ago

Chetty’s work lumps together a lot of different people with very different circumstances. An Asian American born in the bottom 20% has a 25% chance of ending up in the top 20%: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/27/upshot/make-your-own-mobility-animation.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/03/27/upshot/make-y.... Hispanic men born in lowest 20% have a 15% chance of ending up in the top 20%. That’s a high level of mobility. But black men raised in the bottom 20%, the chances of rising to the top are just 7%. If you compare the US to for example Denmark, you can see that the lack of opportunity is concentrated in the bottom 20%. That is to say, income mobility is similar between the countries for people in the lower middle class, but not at the very bottom: https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/01/05/economic-mobility-in-the-u-s-and-denmark/ https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012/01/05/economic-mo... The various data taken together strongly suggests something else is at work rather than the economic system itself. Poor Asians, poor Hispanics, and poor blacks face the same economic system. For them to have vastly different outcomes in terms of economic mobility, the explanation is likely to be something apart from the economic system. What is billed as a matter of economic mobility may well turn out to be more of a story about the criminal justice system, systemic racism, the lasting effects of segregation, etc.