The end of aspiration? Why ‘social mobility’ is falling as inequality rises

Open Democracy

As a consequence, said a report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies published this week, inequality is now so wide as to be “making a mockery of democracy".

Luckily, Cameron’s then-coalition partner, Nick Clegg, suggested a means of retaining the government’s claim to fairness. He redefined fairness. “Social mobility is what characterises a fair society” wrote Clegg, “rather than a particular level of income equality”.
This is about the British situation, but it can easily be applied to the American one - and should be.