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"Using one-generation measures of social mobility—how much a father’s relative income influences that of his adult son—America does half as well as Nordic count
by gyardley 14y ago
"Using one-generation measures of social mobility—how much a father’s relative income influences that of his adult son—America does half as well as Nordic countries, and about the same as Britain and Italy, Europe’s least-mobile places."
Good, because of course I would want my income to influence that of my children. Yes, yes, I would want them to work hard and be curious and chart their own path, etc., but because I'm their father I'm going to try and stack the deck in their favor as high as I can possibly stack it.
And let's not kid ourselves - everybody who cares about their children, no matter what their political inclination or relative level of wealth, tries to do exactly the same thing. From the hedge-fund billionaire to the immigrant janitor.
- npc 14y agoI don't think anyone thinks that it's wrong to try and give your children a better position in life than they would be able to achieve through their ability alone, just that it's beneficial to society as a whole to minimize this effect. Prisoner's dilemma and all that.
- saraid216 14y agoYes, but that's precisely the definition of what a meritocracy is not. Here's the thing: do you want to stack the deck so that only your children have such favor, to the extent you are able, or do you want to stack the deck so that all children have such favor, again to the extent of your ability? Yes, of course, if it's an either-or choice then you'd go with your kids. But if you weren't forced to make such a choice, which would you go with?