Quote:
Originally posted by wonderwench
cthulhu,
You are making a mistake in assuming that the population of the levels of income is static. People move up or down the income levels after various stages of their careers.
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Sure, social mobility is a reality, but i would posit that most Americans tend to stay in the same income class. I'll see if I can dig up some numbers.
Edit: follow this link for a look at american social mobility (from Google Answers no less...how could they be wrong?)
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=291907
Of course, there is no easy answer to the question, but this quote says a little:
Quote:
The effects of such a correlation on individual opportunity are
significant. Assuming a normal distribution of long-term income, the
correlation of 0.4 would imply that a son whose father's income was at
the 25th percentile would have a 26 percent chance of being in the
bottom quintile, a 39 percent chance of rising above the median, and a
12 percent chance of moving up to the highest income quintile. A son
whose father's income was at the 95th percentile would have a 5
percent chance of being in the bottom quintile, a 76 percent chance of
being above the median, and a 42 percent chance of being in the top
quintile. Thus, Solon's findings indicate that there remains a
substantial component of income immobility in the United States."
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Of course, we can debate the real meaning of these numbers if we want to.