So, about those 'diminished levels of upward mobility' ...

They are not actually occurring. Escaping one's station is as possible now as it was before, according to a comprehensive examination of tax records by a pair of Harvard economists. The upshot: U.S. lawmakers may have to alter their rhetoric in this area to address the nation's upward mobility as compared to other countries, rather than prior U.S. generations.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/business/upward-mobility-has-not-declined-study-says.html?from=business

 

You're gonna have a tough time finding a taker for the other side of that bet. Intellectual honesty among the "INEQUALITY!!!!!" crowd's been trading at a severe discount here lately.

 

Just report the news from the study and leave it at that.

It contradicts what politicians, who lie with every breath, say? Knock me over with a feather.

 

Has there been an argument that it has declined? Or just that it is among the lowest in the developed world, which is an odd place to be for the "Land Of Opportunity"?

 

Yes. And the NYT story quotes both Barack Obama and Paul Ryan trying to co-opt that argument.

That is indeed a problem, as the story points out.

 

Summary of the broader work ...

http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org

The actual NBER* working papers:

http://obs.rc.fas.harvard.edu/chetty/mobility_geo.pdf

http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/files/mobility_trends.pdf


*Trying to remember who it was who said the NBER was a Koch brothers house organ.

 

That this particular study shows little change in (poor) upward mobility patterns over 20 years does nothing to alter the fact that economic inequality is a huge and growing problem for our country.

 

Sure. But we should at least address it honestly.

 

How can something that's not changing be a "growing problem"?

 

Please don't conflate inequality with upward mobility, particularly as measured in a study like this.

 

Bah, my bad, misread your post.

 

Wouldn't you expect mobility to have increased just based on the racial aspect? A person was legally and/or practically barred from succeeding in most places 50 years ago. The fact that it hasn't is something of an indictment, I think.