Europe is the Land of Opportunity

If anything is strong in the United States, it is the value of the brand. The value of the American brand, that is. For example, if you tell an American that the United States has less social mobility than in Europe, he will think you have lost your mind.

This was the focus of a three-hour long conversation in my house on Friday night, in which each one of the guests took on the roles of their own cultural stereotypes: the Americans said that it was crazy to say that Europe has greater social mobility; all of the foreigners, minus myself, supported this theory; the Spaniard (me) argued his side with a “take no prisoners” attitude and tried to shoot down opponents (not necessarily only with words); and the Buddhist (a genuine Buddhist from Taiwan, not of the Richard Gere type) made a great show of patience.

Some examples were funny. One person cited the example of Vikram Pandit, the CEO of Citigroup, who was born in India, as an example of the openness of the United States, forgetting that Pandit has made a large part of his career in the United Kingdom, and leaving out that despite the European paradigm of chauvinism, in France, the president of Carrefour is Swedish (and his predecessor was Spanish), the president of Renault, Brazilian, and of Elf-Sanofi, Canadian.

Now, returning to the fundamental question: where are there are more chances of having a better socioeconomic status than your father: in the old, rusty, socialist, classist, racist, decadent Europe…or the dynamic, open, innovative, pragmatic and egalitarian United States?

If you are American, take a Valium before you read on.

Because the answer is, “in Europe.” Or, at least, in the following European countries: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the United Kingdom, France and probably Germany. I have not found data for Spain.

That is what this study, published by José Manuel Durão Barros’s advisor Paul de Grawe, suggests, from which I have taken the following two graphs (see end of article).

The first shows the probability that males born into the lowest quintile (the 20 percent of the population with the lowest incomes) will stay within it for the rest of their lives.

The second shows the probability that these same men will pass to the highest quintile (that is to say, the 20 percent of the population with the highest earnings).

What’s more: the correlation in income does not only exist between fathers and sons. It also exists between brothers, as incredible as that may seem. That is what this study suggests.

Thus, as the Pew Research Center’s studies of public opinion proclaims, “we are actually a less mobile society than many other nations, including Canada, France, Germany and most Scandinavian countries.” This is an idea that Princeton University professor, Alan Krueger, has been defending for years.

Why then, do Americans continue to believe blindly in the myth that their country is the Land of Opportunity? Perhaps because, as stated by one of the few people born in this country who accepts my point of view, “This, in reality, speaks to the power of the brand. The people think that they control their lives and their socioeconomic mobility.”

It is, therefore, a question of perception. American ingenuity against European cynicism. One final test. According to the Pew Research Center, 69 percent and 61 percent of Americans believe that “people are rewarded for their intelligence and hard work” and “for their effort,” respectively. In a survey in 25 other countries, this percentage drops to 39 percent for the first question, and 36 percent for the second.

But in this case the perception does not fit the reality.