>I don't know if this has been empirically tested. But my impression
>is that, among the rich countries, the U.S. has more inequality but
>also more social mobility. The latter is the "material basis" for
>the fantasy (with or without quotation marks). I think of the U.S.
>society like a casino where you don't have to pay cover,
>significantly bigger prizes, but also a larger probability of losing
>the shirt.
I've read a few papers comparing mobility in the U.S. to elsewhere, mainly Western Europe, and they showed the U.S. little different from other rich countries - either on lifetime or intergenerational mobility. The perception of mobility is much greater here, though.
Doug