Is the American Dream harder to achieve now than a generation ago?
In response to my July 10th testimony to the Senate Committee on Finance hearing on “Helping Young People Achieve the American Dream” I received some homework, a series of questions asking me for a good deal more detail. You can review all of the questions on my November 11th post, but this one posed by the Committee Chairman, Senator Max Baucus of Montana, is particularly relevant.
Compared to many other countries the United States is both more unequal, and more of this inequality is passed on to the next generation.
Knowing where Americans stand compared to other countries is interesting because it helps us to begin to understand the underlying causes, and hence how public policy might influence outcomes.
But for the same reasons it is just as interesting, if not more so, to compare the United States not just to other countries, but to itself in a previous time.
Economics for public policy 