Chart of the day: Generational Income Mobility

Via Russ Roberts, who notes:

Notice that all of the quintiles, except the top quintile get smaller shares between 1970 and 2000, roughly the time covered by the Pew study. But the Pew Study comes to the exact opposite conclusion. The lowest quintiles got the biggest gains WHEN YOU FOLLOW THE SAME PEOPLE. Using the Census data over time tells you NOTHING about what “they” (the top whatever percent) had happen to “them” over time.

It is also worth pointing out that the pie is not constant. So you’re well-being can grow even when your share of the pie falls if the pie is getting sufficiently larger.