Revisiting the American Dream: Is the U.S. Providing Fewer Opportunities to Get Ahead?

The widening income gap has become a controversial issue in the United States, as liberals decry the decline of the middle class and conservatives argue that a healthy market economy must reward effort, enterprise and risk taking. But on the related issue of economic mobility, or individuals' ability to move up the income ladder, most people appear to agree: Upward mobility is good.
Indeed, conservatives often cite economic mobility as the reason not to worry about widening income inequality. As long as people can rise, it doesn't matter that some are very rich and others are many rungs below: Economic mobility means people are not trapped where they started.
But a growing body of evidence shows that economic mobility is not as attainable in the United States as many people think. Moreover, various studies show that economic mobility declines as income inequality increases, indicating that in coming years, it could become harder for people to move from poverty to the middle class, or from the middle class to the top.
"Recent studies suggest that there is less economic mobility in the United States than has long been presumed," concludes a study by The Economic Mobility Project, conducted by The Pew Charitable Trusts, The American Enterprise Institute, The Brookings Institution, The Heritage Foundation and The Urban Institute. "The last 30 years have seen a considerable drop-off in median household income growth compared to earlier generations. And, by some measurements, we are actually a less mobile society than many other nations, including Canada, France, Germany and most Scandinavian countries. This challenges the notion of America as the land of opportunity."
What drives economic mobility? "I believe that one of the great historical advantages of the United States has been the remarkable mobility of the U.S. workforce," says Wharton finance professor Richard J. Herring, referring to workers' ability to move from one location to another to pursue jobs, education and other opportunities for a better life, making the economy more efficient than if workers were fixed in place. The chance to rise is key to workers' willingness and ability to move, he argues.

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