[latefordinner]

you could also read that chart as:

3/4 of the richest 2/5 of americans children are also in the richest 2/5, 80% of the 2/5 poorest americans are also in the poorest 2/5

the US has the lowest rate of social mobility of any industrialized country - controlling for any relevant factors in a multivariate analysis the single biggest predictor of poverty status is whether your parents were impoverished

i'm too busy at the moment to pull out a bunch of citations, but in response to neverforgetlol check out the why x% of the people have y% of the welath thread from just the last couple of weeks if you want a discussion on that topic