South By North Strategies, Ltd.

In recent congressional testimony, Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ran down the current research into inequality and finds that hit has increased to varying degrees on multiple measures. Moreover, the increases have not been offset by enhanced social mobility.

Some analysts and policy makers cite income mobility—movements by persons and families  up and down the income scale over the course of their lifetimes, or from one generation to the next—as a reason why policy makers should be less concerned about historically high levels of inequality. However, a key finding here is that the rate of income mobility has not accelerated in recent decades; if anything, it may have slowed. Therefore, it is incorrect to  argue that income mobility has offset the greater distance between income classes over time—i.e., higher inequality. It is also notable that there is considerably less mobility in the US than in most other advanced economies, including those with far lower levels of income inequality. This finding suggests that higher inequality may be blocking key opportunities, such as educational attainment, that would reduce inequality and enhance mobility.