clipped from: www.alternet.org   

The American Dream is Alive and Well ... in Finland!


It's harder to move up the economic ladder in the United States than in other wealthy countries. What happened to the American dream?

But new research suggests the United States' much-ballyhooed upward mobility is a myth, and one that's slipping further from reality with each new generation. On average, younger Americans are not doing better than their parents did, it's harder to move up the economic ladder in the United States than it is in a number of other wealthy countries, and a person in today's work force is as likely to experience downward mobility as he or she is to move up.


Moreover, the single greatest predictor of how much an American will earn is how much their parents make.