From http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/us/harder-for-americans-to-rise-from-lower-rungs.html?partner=rss&emc=rss Many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage. Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, a Republican candidate for president, warned this fall that movement “up into the middle income is actually greater, the mobility in Europe, than it is in America.” National Review, a conservative thought leader, wrote that “most Western European and English-speaking nations have higher rates of mobility.” Even Representative Paul D. Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican who argues that overall mobility remains high, recently wrote that “mobility from the very bottom up” is “where the United States lags behind.” Liberal commentators have long emphasized class, but the attention on the right is largely new. “It’s becoming conventional wisdom that the U.S. does not have as much mobility as most other advanced countries,” said Isabel V. Sawhill, an economist at the Brookings Institution. “I don’t think you’ll find too many people who will argue with that.”
Why do you think Republicans are now emphasizing this? Very interesting... With Obama's low approval ratings, do you think it's a campaign strategy to get those people in the middle (who are slightly conservative democrats or liberal republicans) to side with the republicans in the upcoming elections?
Thanks for posting this. This quote struck me: " Liberal commentators have long emphasized class, but the attention on the right is largely new." You can't read many of these types of articles with the authors mentioning the effect the OWS movements have had, as this quote illustrates: "The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage." The issues of lower and middle income americans will take center stage in this next election. Abner
