A new, expensive study proves what common sense could have told you for free – the South has problems. This is the region with the lowest chance for socio-economic mobility in the entire United States.
The New York Times reports that location matters when it comes to your children climbing the income ladder:
Climbing the income ladder occurs less often in the Southeast and industrial Midwest, the data shows, with the odds notably low in Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis, Raleigh, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Columbus. By contrast, some of the highest rates (of income mobility) occur in the Northeast, Great Plains and West, including in New York, Boston, Salt Lake City, Pittsburgh, Seattle and large swaths of California and Minnesota.
There are exceptions in a handful of counties in western parts of Texas and Oklahoma. But overall, the American Dream does not whistle Dixie.
