I’m surprised that someone of Mankiw’s accomplishment and empirical skill would retreat to anecdata when pertinent data are so widely available. One study examined intergenerational mobility between 1979 and 2000. A child in the top socioeconomic quintile had a 55 percent chance of remaining in the top 20 percent, and only an 11 percent chance of falling into the bottom 40 percent. The comparable mobility figures for children in the middle quintile were 13 percent and 31 percent. More recent data on the top 1 percent surely telegraph more extreme differences in life chances.
Greg Mankiw is very smart and accomplished and believes that if only everyone worked as hard as he did then they would be where he is. Reality rarely intrudes on conservatives. Ezra should really understand that by now.
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