Is this a Great Country? Upward Mobility and the Chances for Riches

Public opinion data suggests that a strikingly large proportion of Americans, and particularly young Americans, believe they have a reasonably good chance of becoming rich in their lifetime. An analysis of these surveys reveals considerable variance in what being “rich ” means to the survey respondents. Analysis of PSID data demonstrates the actual level of opportunity for upward income mobility over the life course and shows that Americans overestimate their chances of being rich. The overestimate is considerable even when subjective definitions are used, and is very large if conventional definitions such as top 3%, top 1%, or top 0.1 % are used for the threshold.