quality or differences in the degree of income and equality or segregation in a city, or things like the number of two-parent families in an area are all correlated with upward mobility. so, for instance, a place like atlanta where the odds of moving up in the income distribution are particularly low, they send to be cities where there s a lot of income segregation. the poor are not living in close proximity with the rich, for example. jeff, what was your take reading what we know of the study? i think it helps to explain what s happening more generally, which is a crisis at the bottom, of course soaring wealth at the top, and a real problem for ameri america. in places with very low social and income mobility, you mentioned detroit in the opening, that s a place where the labor market is just disappearing. there aren t jobs. the school system is in deep crisis. some of the factors that raj has just indicated. we see that in a lot of parts of america. megan, would it be fair to
CNN Fareed Zakaria GPS August 4, 2013 17:16:15
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might call middle class inequality or the size of the middle class, the gap in incomes between the 25th and 75th income, that is very highly correlated with rates of upward mobility. so our takeaway is that it seems to be something that s related to the extent to which the middle class exists and is pulling away from the poor, rather than upper tail extreme concentration of wealth. i don t want to leave the top 1% scott free in this because it also depends on whether they pay their taxes and their strong control over the political system. and so unless we have rectification that reflects the fact that the income as soared at the very, very top but not the taxes, we re not going to get right some of these other things. the thing that i m struck most by when you look at the comparative data is how amazingly well northern europe does, particularly scandinavia, where they have a very large middle class, where there is less inequality, and where it s sort of a left-right issue is
area. however, the degree of what you might call middle class inequality or the size of the middle class, the gap in incomes between the 25th and 75th income, that is very highly correlated with rates of upward mobility. so our takeaway is that it seems to be something that s related to the extent to which the middle class exists and is pulling away from the poor, rather than upper tail extreme concentration of wealth. i don t want to leave the top 1% scot-free in this because it also depends on whether they pay their taxes and their strong control over the political system. and so unless we have rectification that reflects the fact that the income as soared at the very, very top but not the taxes, we re not going to get right some of these other things. the thing that i m struck most by when you look at the comparative data is how amazingly well northern europe does, particularly scandinavia, where they have a very large middle class, where there is less inequality, and where it s