Summary: Reading Time: 3 minutesIf economic inequality is as big an issue as I have made it out to be in this series, then why do we tolerate it? The answer lies in this idea of the American dream. The root of the American dream is the potential for social mobility. In this podcast I will explain how Americans today are living under an illusion. Social mobility has expired and we are living at the end of the American dream.<br> <br> <br> The American dream was a concept first coined during the 1930s as the Greatest Generation fought back agains the Great Depression. It was made popular when that same generation lived out the benefits of the great compression. We talked about this period in a prior episode in the series. Central to the ideas of the American dream was social mobility. If one worked hard and obeyed the rules, they could make it here. The lives of their children would be better than their own. Social mobility means moving up from one social hierarchy to another over the course of generations if necessary.<br> By way of the American dream, Americans have continued to pursue social mobility ever since World War II. The reality however is that we have come to the end of the American dream. It has been over for at least a decade and perhaps even longer.<br> Stats on the Decline of Upward Social Mobility in America<br> Today a child born into the middle class is more likely to descend into a lower and poorer class in America than he is to become rich. This makes sense to some extent because if it was easy to become rich, everyone would do it. But the loss of upward mobility means that child is more likely to become poor than he is to even remain in the middle class. The American dream is over.<br> <br> * One study showed that it would now take a child born into poverty in America at least 125 years to become rich throughout social mobility. That is more than five generations.<br> * An American born into poverty is far less likely to rise to the middle class than a child born in Germany, France, or Scandinavia today.<br> * Far more people are falling out of the middle class and into poverty than are moving from the middle class into upper classes.<br> * The proportion of wealth being held by the richest Americans is increasing while the percentage of these richest Americans is decreasing.<br> <br> End of the American Dream<br> One of the major paradigms that have contributed to the end of upward social mobility in America has to do with the perspectives of money, wealth and riches. The middle class thinks of riches in the form of income. The rich think of riches in the form of assets minus liabilities. For the rich, it is about how much assets they hold and can free from taxes and debt. The assets of the rich are frequently not even associated with their income. Debates about income taxes are therefore null and void when it comes to economic inequality. Income has very little to do with the differences between the rich, the middle class and the poor.<br> <br> <br> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/theendofhistory/PHVq/~6/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a><br> <a href="https://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/headlineanimator/install?id=nb64uri41haerm5fvtnnavfgjo&w=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">↑ Grab this Headline Animator</a><br> <br> <br> This is part of my <a href="https://wp.me/p2iDfo-1su">Complete Guide to Understanding Inequality in America</a>. Check it out for more podcast episodes, infographics and articles and on this topic. Check out all of my<a href="http://www.theendofhistory.net/essential-guides-to-gain-a-better-understanding-of-the-world/"> expert topic guides</a> on other topics as well. <br>
