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Kasz216 on 10 November 2009
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ManusJustus said:
mrstickball said:

In praxis, that CEO may give his son the business only to have him totally squander the business. We've seen that very often in America. Look at the Big 3 auto makers who had a lineage of ownership by the family - at some point, a son or daughter rose to power, and squandered what they had. A similar situation is taking place in Cleveland with the Cleveland Browns and the son who inherited it.

As for your argument about the single mother. That hard working youth may have been Larry Ellison who was birthed by an unwed 19 year old mother. To this day, no one knows who the father is of Mr. Ellison.

There is opportunity, but no one can claim that opportunity is any where close to being equal.  The son of a rich CEO is still filthy rich, even if he is a total failure in life.  Even a driven person, like Larry Ellison, works to get to that same level, he had to put a lot of hard work in to get there whereas the wealthy heir did absolutely nothing for the same.

There is a lot of economic mobility and it actually is "fairly even."

Not completly only because people who gain money deside to spend a large portion of it on others.  Which... do you think it's unfair for people to want to give their kids stuff?

Something to consider.

 

Almost 58% of those in the lowest income quintile (the lowest 20% of returns) in 1996 were in a higher quintile by 2005. Almost half of them had moved up two or more quintiles, and 5% had moved into the top quintile.

The middle quintile also did well. One-third stayed there, and 42% moved up, almost 13% to the top quintile. Just 7% moved to the bottom.

The top quintile from 1995 saw almost one-third of its members drop to a lower income group. (And 58% of those in the top one percent had fallen to a lower income quintile in 2005.)

 

Also it's good to note the excluded people entering the workforce and people who left it during this time for these statistics.

Economic Mobility in the US is actually pretty strong.  It's hard to track down europeon economic mobility studies, but the few i did a few months ago weren't quite as complimentry except for one.