An interesting Op Ed. in the December 8, 2016 NY Times, here attempts to quantify a phrase we always here-"The American Dream."
So what is the American Dream? According to this author, it is to have a better standard of living than your parents. The article is full of economic analysis and includes a chart showing that for someone born in 1980 they only have a 50% chance of making more than their parents. As the article states:
The resulting research is among the most eye-opening economics work in recent years. You’ve probably heard some of the findings even if you don’t realize it. They have shown that the odds of escaping poverty vary widely by region, for instance, an insight that has influenced federal housing policy.
After the research began appearing, I mentioned to Chetty, a Stanford professor, and his colleagues that I thought they had a chance to do something no one yet had: create an index of the American dream. It took them months of work, using old Census data to estimate long-ago decades, but they have done it. They’ve constructed a data set that shows the percentage of American children who earn more money — and less money — than their parents earned at the same age.
The index is deeply alarming. It’s a portrait of an economy that disappoints a huge number of people who have heard that they live in a country where life gets better, only to experience something quite different.
Their frustration helps explain not only this year’s disturbing presidential campaign but also Americans’ growing distrust of nearly every major societal institution, including the federal government, corporate America, labor unions, the news media and organized religion.
Yet the data also helps point the way to some promising solutions.
I am not a fan of economic statistical analysis, but this article makes an interesting read. Frankly, I do not see how the American Dream can be quantified.
Mitchell H. Rubinstein