I’ve written about income inequality and about income mobility, with concern about the growth of the former and the shrinking of the latter.
Justin Wolfers at Freakonomics has an interesting post that, first, argues the two trends are related and that, second, the current meme that things aren’t as bad as all that is not only wrong, but that its premises actually show the counter result.
Wolfers also points to a speech by Princeton economist and Council of Economic Advisors chair Alan Krueger on inequality (he prefers the term “dispersion”) and mobility, the track of which he calls “the Great Gatsby Curve.” Note, early in Dr. Kreuger’s speech, the remark regarding inequality, “The magnitude of these shifts is mindboggling.”
Later,
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