Again, you're complaining that we don't have enough social mobility because the percentage of people who move between groups is low.
that is an assumption that has no basis in fact. there was no 'complaint'.
I'm asking you what constitutes "low" and what would be enough.
and i told you.
If you don't know what the numbers should be, it's foolish to say that you think the numbers are too low or high.
i never said that the numbers were high, low or in between. i did not offer an opinion on the validity of the numbers nor did i offer an opinion on what the numbers mean aside from that fact that they demonstrate that significant change in economic status is a myth. they do.
Do you realize that those numbers are essentially identical to the numbers I posted in my initial response?
Seriously. Look at your numbers, then look at the chart I posted.
sorry, i do not see that. nothing that i posted, that i can see, nor anything that i have read suggests that "60% of the people born to the poorest quartile make their way into a higher quartile". that is simply not true, in fact, that is preposterous.
but the point is that ever increasing level of wealth is not only not true, it is not possible. Adam Smith was wrong - there is not an infinite amount of wealth to be had - infinite growth is not possible. The notion defies a central premise of thermo dynamics in a universe of finite resources.... a fixed amount of "stuff".
i am not arguing the merits of relative wealth (though i would be glad to do so), i am arguing against the validity of the myth.
Once again, you're confusing social mobility (the movement of people from one group to another) with income growth within each group.
no, i do not believe that i am. i made no claim of social mobility, i talked about actual increases of real wealth. joe's paycheck is bigger than his daddy's when his daddy was the same age but joe is no wealthier than his daddy was. he may be less wealthy, in fact.
No, the probability of working oneself into an elevated economic class is 6/10 for those born in the poorest quartile.
what the heck are you smoking?
siddown... think a minute.
each generation, there are 60% fewer poor than the prior generation. you are familiar with achilles and the tortoise, yes? infinitely decreasing decreases without the difference ever being eliminated? i can't do the math, but i can tell you... it is illusion. and if you believe it true, you are accepting a myth. eventually that lowest quintile would be empty and EVERYONE would be in the upper.
if you see changes, you see 'economic displacement'. there are only enough riches for so many rich folk. if I get rich, i do so by acquiring someone else's riches. That poor sap falls as i rise, he is displaced. You have your choice between leveling and displacement.... just like buckets of water and sand.
geo.