> What about rising from rags to riches? In the US, 8% of children raised in the bottom 20% of the income distribution are able to climb to the top 20% as adult

> What about rising from rags to riches? In the US, 8% of children raised in the bottom 20% of the income distribution are able to climb to the top 20% as adults, while the figure in Denmark is nearly double at 15%. Whenever these comparisons are done, they always use percentiles instead of raw numbers. So let's look at raw numbers in USD. In Denmark using Statbank https://www.statbank.dk/statbank5a/selectvarval/define.asp?PLanguage=1&subword=tabsel&MainTable=IFOR21&PXSId=191064&tablestyle=&ST=SD&buttons=0 https://www.statbank.dk/statbank5a/selectvarval/define.asp?P... You can calculate the 20th and 80th percentiles: In Denmark(2019): The 80th percentile is: 27,893.10 USD The 20th percentile is: 59,261.18 USD You can calculate the USA numbers from https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-individual-income-percentiles/ https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-individual-income-perce... In the USA(2019): The 80th percentile is: 18,324.02 USD The 20th percentile is: 81,368.00 USD The US has quite a bit more gap between the 80th percentile and 20th percentile. I am not sure the issue is mobility as much as the baseline income equality. I think it should be expected to be easier to go from $28K to $59K than from $18K to $81K. I have not seen any analysis on how easy it would be to go from $28K in the US to $59K or from $18K in Denmark to $81K.