Doesn ' t it worry you that during the debate and once again , now , you reach for these wellaccepted facts ? .? What ? I just linked you literally an entire wikipedia article citing tons of facts and figures that go on to show that the US is one of the worst nations for economic mobility . Do I need to show you the actual quotes . ? Ninetythree percent of Americans whose parents were in the bottom fifth of the income ladder and 88 percent of those whose parents were in the middle quintile exceed their parents ' family income as adults . By how much ? Incomes across the entire first world have risen over the past decades , of course people in general are going to be making more money than their families . But the idea you ' re furthering isn ' t that someone ' s family made 50 kyear , and now they are making 53 kyear , but instead people coming from families making 50 kyear are now easily clearing 250 kyear . Also , as per your own link , I dunno if you read it or not . While a majority of Americans exceed their parents ' family incomes , the extent of that increase is not always enough to move them to a different rung of the family income ladder . Only 4 percent of those raised in the bottom quintile make it all the way to the top as adults , confirming that the ragstoriches story is more often found in Hollywood than in reality . Similarly , just 8 percent of those raised in the top quintile fall all the way to the bottom . I literally pulled these sentences straight from your bottom source . I don ' t know if you just weren ' t expecting me to read it or what . EDIT This link actually addresses your entire argument , lol . Why do more Americans experience upward absolute mobility than upward relative mobility ? The rungs of the income ladder have widened during the past generation , reflecting economic growth at all levels , but especially at the top . Median income in the bottom income quintile increased by 74 percent between the two generations , compared with 126 percent in the top income quintile see Figure 4 . The difference between the size of the rungs between the two generations means that while the vast majority of Americans exceeded their parents ' family incomes , the extent of that increaseparticularly at the bottomwas not always enough to move them to a different rung of the income ladder .