14/ In other words, 86 percent of today’s 40-somethings who were raised in the bottom 20 percent have higher incomes than their parents did when the parents were in their 40s. Upward mobility from the bottom of the income distribution is what we should care about most.

15/ For adults who were raised in the second quintile, about 76% enjoy a higher income than their parents. This quintile represents many in the working class, a group that has received considerable attention from populists in both political parties, including the president.

16/ America is clearly an upwardly mobile nation. The common experience is for children to have higher incomes than their parents. This is particularly true of children raised in the bottom 20 percent and, really, for those raised outside the top 20 percent.

17/ Could there be more upward mobility in America? Yes. But if you have to pick between the American Dream of upward mobility being alive or dead, between America being a class society or not, the data strongly supports the description of America as an upwardly mobile society.

Fin/ America is not a class society, where little intergenerational progress takes place. The American Dream is not dead.

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