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You don’t understand social mobility, it does not imply what you think it does. It primarily reflects the smallness of a country and wage compression. Countries

You don’t understand social mobility, it does not imply what you think it does. It primarily reflects the smallness of a country and wage compression. Countries that are neither small nor have wage compression, such as the US, will always show poorly by that metric. You can, in absolute terms, dramatically increase your income in a country like the US and still be less “socially mobile” than a small income increase in a poorer country. People care about dramatically increasing their income much more than they care about being “socially mobile”. If you care about individual prosperity, social mobility is at best a secondary measure of success. This isn’t a new phenomenon, the EU still struggles to produce genuinely innovative companies.

danjac 3y ago
The US has seen decreasing social mobility in past decades. So this isn't just the US vs European countries, it's the US vs itself. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwards-decline-usa-us-america-economics/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwar...
- jandrewrogers 3y ago
  The reality is that “social mobility” is a term of art in economics that measures something few ordinary people care about. People mostly care about economic mobility, which is strong in the US. People want the to be better off financially, not more socially mobile. These are not the same thing. You can readily increase your earnings by large amounts without being socially mobile. The notion that people prefer to be “socially mobile” but poorer isn’t backed by a lot of evidence. People like more money, as a general rule. Appealing to “social mobility” is something people with money do.
  - danjac 3y ago
    First you say that I don't understand "social mobility", now you are saying people don't care about social mobility...I mean, at least pick a lane.
  - Wool2662 3y ago
    Social mobility is literally only about money today, not too many opportunities to become a noble anymore. And no you cannot "readily increase your earnings." The best indicator for a person's future earnings are still the parents wealth. There are outliers but basically social and economic success are largely inherited. The people that don't realise this are nearly always the ones that grew up with a silver spoon and feel like they "worked hard" for what they have, when in reality most of their opportunities were open to them because of their social circle.

danjac 3y ago

The US has seen decreasing social mobility in past decades. So this isn't just the US vs European countries, it's the US vs itself. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwards-decline-usa-us-america-economics/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwar...

jandrewrogers 3y ago
The reality is that “social mobility” is a term of art in economics that measures something few ordinary people care about. People mostly care about economic mobility, which is strong in the US. People want the to be better off financially, not more socially mobile. These are not the same thing. You can readily increase your earnings by large amounts without being socially mobile. The notion that people prefer to be “socially mobile” but poorer isn’t backed by a lot of evidence. People like more money, as a general rule. Appealing to “social mobility” is something people with money do.
- danjac 3y ago
  First you say that I don't understand "social mobility", now you are saying people don't care about social mobility...I mean, at least pick a lane.
- Wool2662 3y ago
  Social mobility is literally only about money today, not too many opportunities to become a noble anymore. And no you cannot "readily increase your earnings." The best indicator for a person's future earnings are still the parents wealth. There are outliers but basically social and economic success are largely inherited. The people that don't realise this are nearly always the ones that grew up with a silver spoon and feel like they "worked hard" for what they have, when in reality most of their opportunities were open to them because of their social circle.