>Do you/we really want to make the argument that Society A is better
>than Society B b/c there is a higher degree of inter-generational mobility in
>Society A ?
Can't speak for the others constituting this "we," but my interest in (im)mobility is to counter the standard American myth of classnessness - the shoeshine boy rising to magnate, the grandson of a Triangle Shirtwaist survivor becoming a Hollywood mogul - and the equally standard myth that allegedly greater mobility here balances the greater inequality at any given time. A more complicated version of the argument is that, yes, at any given moment, U.S. incomes are more unequal than almost everywhere else, but that allegedly greater mobility offsets this, resulting in less inequality over an entire lifetime. It's not true.
Not, of course, that truth is a reliable antidote to mythmaking, but it's a start.
Doug