The shrinking middle class, income inequality, and the lack of opportunity for advancement have all contributed to the demise of the American Dream, according to a UC San Diego researcher who is looking to revive it.
Lane Kenworthy, chair of the Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research at UC San Diego, is leading a team of researchers who will look at 25 different proposed strategies for increasing upward mobility and rate their relative effectiveness.
Some of the areas Kenworthy's Upward Mobility Commission will look at are improving education, increasing economic growth, increasing the minimum wage and cutting taxes.
The research portion of the project will to take two years. After that, Kenworthy will take their findings to policy makers. He said he hopes to set the U.S. back on course toward the American Dream.
“We want some relative mobility,” Kenworthy told KPBS Midday Edition on Tuesday. “If you have economic growth and it trickles down, then everybody is better off.”
Kenworthy said the American Dream was alive after World War II. But since the late 1970s, wages have been stagnant.
“We can get back to something like (the American Dream),” Kenworthy said. “At least that’s the hope.”
