Social Mobility is a Lot Less Mobile Than We Thought By Christopher Chantrill for American Thinker
Inequality is the worst thing in the world. Even my racist neighbor at the top of the hill with his BLM “Equality Hurts No one” yard sign knows that. And we have gubmint programs to the tune of 36 percent of GDP per annum working like mad to un-hurt people from the horrors of inequality.
Only, writes Gregory Clark in The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility, all that lovely lucre hasn’t made much difference to social inequality. The scions of the elite pretty much stay in the elite. Almost everywhere in the world, from way back.
He starts with Sweden: we all know that Sweden is the most un-unequal nation in the world. Fuggedaboutit. In Sweden, Swedes with formerly “titled noble” surnames are overrepresented six-times in the lists of attorneys. But don’t worry, these “titled nobles” are only overrepresented 2.2 times in the ranks of physicians. Just to give you the flavor of things, Clark’s Figure 2.1 is a photo of the “Riddarhuset, headquarters of the Swedish nobility, in downtown Stockholm.”
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Don’t worry, the Swedish “titled nobles” are regressing towards the egalitarian norm. Only it will take centuries until they get there.
Whatabout the U.S.? Well, in the U.S. we have the Ashkenazi Jews, who vaulted from four times overrepresentation among physicians in the 1940s to eight times in the 1970s. But now Jews are regressing towards the mean. At current rates it will take them three hundred years till they “cease to be overrepresented among physicians.” Other overrepresented groups among physicians, such as the “1923-24 rich” and “Ivy League” graduates, are also regressing towards the mean. Slowly.
I know. Whatabout China? It should show a stunning success in the elimination of the old elite, thanks to the vigorous efforts of Chairman Mao’s Red Guard pals. Alas! The sons of the Qing dynasty elite are still overrepresented by 2 to 4 times among professors, corporate board chairs, and government officials.
