As the level of inequality in the US rises to levels not seen since the Great Depression, there has been interest in the lack of upward mobility for the current generation. Less attention has been paid to the top of the income distribution, but that is changing. Using data from the Economic Policy Institute, the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality has highlighted the growing income gap between those at the top of the income distribution (90th percentile) vs those at the middle of the distribution (50th percentile. The top earners continue to pull away from the rest of the population, resulting in ever inequality greater.
Now Michael Hobbes has called attention to what he terms the “glass floor” keeping the children of the richest Americans at the top despite their limited talents. He provides several examples of how the children of the very wealthy are protected from failure and in the process he implicates elite educational institutions that are more willing to admit children of the wealthy than those of less means. As Hobbes notes, when offspring of the rich remain at the top by virtue of their birth and maintain their positions as a result of the transmission of advantage through the educational system, the talent level of those in influential positions in society declines and more talented individuals are blocked.
None of this is surprising to those who have attended or work at elite colleges and universities, but those stories must be shared in person.
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