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Very interesting article. Following the articles logic, you should be able to deduce a country's Social mobility based on the number of exotic items (such as su
by sc077y 4y ago
Very interesting article. Following the articles logic, you should be able to deduce a country's Social mobility based on the number of exotic items (such as supercars) you see in public. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that Europe has lower Social mobility than the United States. You will seldom see exotic sports car in the streets in Western Europe because most of the wealth are from well established institutions and families.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rsynnott 4y agoWestern Europe has generally higher social mobility by most metrics than the US (mobility between income cohorts, education level vs parents, etc). The US probably does have more people becoming really, _really_ rich, though, and also has slightly different social norms around money and the showing-off thereof. (That said, this is mostly differences at the margins. The mean price of a new car isn't much different between the US and the wealthier EU countries, say; the upper-middle-class are happy enough to buy cars that cost more than an average annual household income in both places. It's where you start getting past low six figures that people start getting squeamish)
- jandrewrogers 4y agoSocial mobility is the wrong metric. The economic mobility in the US -- the ability to increase your absolute income -- is far higher than in Europe. Countries with compressed wages have high social mobility, almost by definition, by low economic mobility. Since the US experiences very low wage compression compared to most countries, it will never be "socially mobile" but will have anomalously high wages for a large portion of the population.
- sc077y 4y agoYou're right, I meant to say economic mobility.