[HM2Viking]

In theory, all this hard work is supposed to spark a more robust economy that is, in turn, an engine of greater upward mobility than what is found in the supposedly coddled precincts of, say, the European Union. But lately, it hasn't. An ongoing, bipartisan study of intergenerational economic mobility conducted jointly by conservative and liberal-leaning researchers for the Pew Charitable Trusts has found the myth of superior American mobility to be--a myth.
Researchers for the Economic Mobility Project studied the relationship of adult children's incomes to those of their parents and found that the United States now lags behind France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Norway and Denmark in this measure of upward mobility. "There is little available evidence that the United States has more relative mobility than other advanced nations," the group reported in May. "If anything, the data seem to suggest the opposite."
Comparing the incomes of American men who were in their 30s in 2004 with males who were in their 30s in 1974, the researchers found that today's men actually earn about 12 percent less, after inflation, than their fathers' generation did. "There has been no progress at all for the youngest generation," the group reported. The American family stays afloat because its total income has been swelled by women's paychecks.
The sober statistics should lead toward saner economic policies. Europe, Canada and the rest of the industrialized world are doing just fine with guaranteed health insurance, pensions, maternity leave and sick time--not to mention a month at the beach. Here at home, nothing threatens the American dream so much as political disinclination to cast off old thinking and demand change for new and harsher economic times.

http://alternet.org/workplace/56523/

[oramar]

The whole thing probably relates to the loss of good paying jobs in the middle income. There is a proliferation of low wage jobs and an increase in very high paying jobs. However, those jobs where a single wage earner can support a family in the middle income areas are few and far between but they are still out there.

[UKRNinUSA]

perhaps if we had universal health care, employers would be able to divert the funding of health insurance to more paid sick and vacation time making healthier, happier, more productive employees. Just a thought.
I think its an excellent idea, when do we start?