All those articles show are a few correlations. They don't establish causality. They are also somewhat cherrypicked. If you look at changes over time, you see

All those articles show are a few correlations. They don't establish causality. They are also somewhat cherrypicked. If you look at changes over time, you see no relationship between inequality (which has increased) and relative mobility (which has remained flat). http://obs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/chetty/mobility_trends.pdf http://obs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/chetty/mobility_trends.pdf You can also get similar correlations if you put single motherhood on the X axis. And if you compare US commuting zones, rather than European countries, you find the correlations are not so strong. http://www.economics21.org/commentary/great-gastby-curve-revisited-part-1#.U8KmDXV53UY http://www.economics21.org/commentary/great-gastby-curve-rev...