and the poverty line is determined (somewhat) arbitrarily by the government, so saying there are less Americans in poverty now is as much a reflection of where the line is drawn as anything else. Technology is good and all, but the article doesn't really have much to say about class mobility, aside from the prospect of being able to move from the very lowest class to the second lowest class (which is not that big a leap, and doesn't really represent much, if you look at how median income and wealth actually shake down for those quintiles).