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Is China's an upwardly mobile society? “Ascension” examines the Chinese dream.

The Oscar-nominated documentary explores the rise of China's middle class, zeroing in on an economy in transition.
The Oscar-nominated documentary explores the rise of China's middle class, zeroing in on an economy in transition.
Visit Films

Admission by lottery: A proposal to reimagine college acceptance

Jul 2, 2021
Harvard's Michael Sandel says a lottery conveys "what is true in any case: that luck matters as much as effort in admission."
"College is not the engine of upward mobility we assume it to be," says Harvard professor Michael Sandel. He says a lottery for admissions would change that.
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World Bank report finds that poverty, lack of education follows generations

May 10, 2018
It’s the dream of many parents that their children will grow up to have more prosperous lives than they did. A new report from the World Bank finds that’s not happening in much of the developing world, where upward mobility has stalled for the past 30 years.  Click the audio player above to hear the […]

Mobility as an economic measure

Dec 10, 2015
The latest research from Pew shows the middle class is no longer the majority.
According to the Pew Charitable Trust, it's not so easy to climb income brackets in the United States.
Pixbay

Can the free market provide opportunity for all?

Jul 30, 2012
Arthur Brooks, the president of the American Enterprise Institute, argues that raising taxes won't help the poor and that the free market is the way to bring people out of poverty.

50 million Americans living in poverty

Jun 1, 2012
Sixteen percent of the U.S. population lives at or below the poverty line. Author Peter Edelman thinks that's unacceptable.
A man named R.J. eats a free meal at the St. Anthony Foundation dining room in San Francisco.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images