.......did you get that America is still the land of opportunity in face of widening wealth/income gap?

The fact that people are optimisitic with regards to their mobility, or that the poor have more buying power, or a good chance to go from the bottom 20% to the bottom 40% (which is a group that is still considered low income and many people in that group lack health insurance) doesn't indicate opportunity.

If anything, the article indicated that the greatest amount of opportunity exists for those who are affluent, because they're best positioned to take advantage of what the nation has to offer.

Taking the five income quintiles, with the bottom being #1 and the top being #5 - I would say that people in quintiles 2, 3 & 4 stay in the quintile they were born in, with the people in four as the ones that are most likely to jump to five.

Blue Collar people typically stay Blue Collar.

People who are just regular middle class typically stay that way too.

The only people who really have a chance of social mobility or the sons/daughters of Yuppies or people who are close to being Yuppie Spawn - E.g. #4.

According to this:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2002-06-05-education-census.htm

15% of people 25 or older, have college degrees - a sure indication of the people who have the most mobility.

I'm not saying that there isn't an "opportunity" to live a comfortable life in this country, but in terms of mobility and the chance to end up in Quintile 4 & 5 - if you weren't born into that life, chances are, you won't get there.

Peace,








M2