Inter-Generational Mobility: World Bank Report

[djAdvocate]

very interesting report.

the US has lousy income mobility is the long and short of it.

it also is part of a group that has a disparity of opportunity.

and they posit why (on page 39, I believe):

A society
with high inequality is also likely to have greater inequality of opportunity,
which leads to lower relative mobility that, in turn, leads to further inequality
in outcomes and opportunities, and so on.
To break the cycle of high inequality and low mobility, a government
would need to prioritize policies that raise opportunities for the least advantaged
groups at various stages of life, as appropriate for a country’s own
context.

for those of you perplexed at why income disparity is a problem, this is one of many reasons why.

note: in the paragraph above, "high inequality" = high income disparity/wealth disparity.

openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/28428

[haapai]

Your hands may be tied by an inability to quote more extensively.

Nobody should be shocked that the US is not nearly as equal in terms of distribution of income (and wealth, although that is a cast-iron pita to measure) as we would like to think.

I remember sitting in sociology classes back in the late eighties and early nineties and being horrified by the gini graphs and coefficients that were being thrown at me.

My unwillingness to spend more time (or money) getting my hands on that abstract might have more to do with my fear of the results than shortage of time (or money).

[happyhoix]

People who think income inequality isn't a problem are the ones who think in America, all you have to do is work hard and magically, the door to wealth opens up for you.

Those people need to study the part you quoted that says "A society
with high inequality is also likely to have greater inequality of opportunity,
which leads to lower relative mobility that, in turn, leads to further inequality
in outcomes and opportunities, and so on."

So, people born in the lower income brackets in these kinds of society don't get the opportunities the wealthier classes get, which keeps them stuck in the lower income bracket - this is a concern, because if you have a whole bunch of people who feel like they never had the same opportunity wealthy people had, and no matter how hard they work, that opportunity might not ever show up, you get a large bunch of people who decide it's better to overthrow the status quo that be ground into the earth beneath it.

Gated communities and private security firms can only be helpful to a point, if that happens.

[phil5185]

""the US has lousy income mobility is the long and short of it.
it also is part of a group that has a disparity of opportunity.

and they posit why (on page 39, I believe): ""

Yes, page 39.   I was surprised that the correlation of  mobility of US education and the mobility of opportunity was only 0.43. It was displayed as a scatter graph with a 'weak' correlation.

Tends to show the often mentioned failed K12 system in the US over a 30 year era.

And the section on how fast girls have over-taken boys in the US school systems.  Hanna Risen had a section on that in her book a few years ago - eg, 50 years ago almost all pharmacists were men, now women out-number men by a wide margin. And today's pharmacy schools are nearly all women.

[djAdvocate]

thanks for the thoughtful contribution, phil

[thyme4change]

Sept 3, 2019 19:55:03 GMT -5 phil5185 said:

""the US has lousy income mobility is the long and short of it.
it also is part of a group that has a disparity of opportunity.

and they posit why (on page 39, I believe): ""

Yes, page 39.   I was surprised that the correlation of  mobility of US education and the mobility of opportunity was only 0.43. It was displayed as a scatter graph with a 'weak' correlation.

Tends to show the often mentioned failed K12 system in the US over a 30 year era.

And the section on how fast girls have over-taken boys in the US school systems.  Hanna Risen had a section on that in her book a few years ago - eg, 50 years ago almost all pharmacists were men, now women out-number men by a wide margin. And today's pharmacy schools are nearly all women.

And that is...bad? Good? Significant? I'm not following your point.

[billisonboard]

When I downloaded FIGURE O.8 Greater inequality of opportunity is associated with lower relative
mobility in education on page 39 it does not identify which data point is US specific.

[djAdvocate]

Sept 3, 2019 22:23:16 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

When I downloaded FIGURE O.8 Greater inequality of opportunity is associated with lower relative
mobility in education on page 39 it does not identify which data point is US specific.

there is a separate report that uses the data in the attached report. if I can find the link, I will post it.

note: I will admit that as a statistical abstract, this is almost unfathomable, other than the conclusions.