Rising from rags
to riches isn't the American dream; it's an American fairytale, according to
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.
"The American
dream has become a myth," Stiglitz, an economics professor at Columbia
University, told the German news magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published
Tuesday. "The belief in the American dream is not supported by the
data."
There's evidence
to support such claims. The U.S. has less economic mobility than Canada and much
of Western Europe, according to economic research cited by The New York Times.
Seven in ten Americans that start out in the bottom fifth of family income stay
in the lower class as adults, and more than six in ten Americans that start out
in the top family income quintile stay in the upper class as adults, according
to a July report by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
While the data
may not be there to back the idea of the American dream, there are some that
still consider it to be pretty important. Republican vice presidential nominee
Paul Ryan, for his part, said last year that "70 percent of Americans want the
American dream. They believe in the American idea. Only 30 percent want the
welfare state."
Stiglitz told
Der Spiegel that in spite of anecdotes about poor people becoming rich, overall
"the life chances of a young U.S. citizen are more dependent on the income and
education of his parents than in any other advanced industrial country for which
there is data." Huffington Post
The wealth gap
between the richest Americans and the typical family more than doubled over the
past 50 years, according to a recent report by the left-leaning Economic Policy
Institute. CBC While the U.S.
wealth and income gaps have been expanding for decades, the trend was
accelerated during the Great Recession. Median family income was 6% lower in
2010 than a decade earlier. CBC Most Americans
below the upper echelon have suffered a decline in wealth in recent decades. The
median household saw its net worth drop to $57,000 in 2010, down from $73,000 in
1983. It would have been $119,000 had wealth grown equally across households.
Reuters The top 1%, on
the other hand, saw their average wealth grow to $16.4 million, up from $9.6
million in 1983. This is due in large part to the growing income inequality
divide, as well as the sharp rise in value of stocks over the period.
Reuters In 1962, the top
1% had 125 times the net worth of the median household. That shot up to 288
times by 2010. CNN
AHT/HJ
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