What the Fading American Dream Actually Measures

When people say upward mobility is collapsing, they rarely define their terms. This episode unpacks the actual data behind the American Dream — absolute vs. relative mobility, the Great Gatsby Curve, and what opportunity hoarding looks like in practice. We trace the steady erosion from a 90% chance of out-earning your parents in 1940 to a coin flip by 1980, and explore why inequality, not slow growth, is the main culprit. Plus: what downward mobility actually looks like when the ladder itself shifts.