E2 Resource distribution

Topic

The distribution of resources in a society brings together the distribution of income and wealth, the class structure that that distribution supports, and the mobility with which people move between those classes. While the rate of intergenerational social mobility remains in line with what is expected for the level of economic development of that society, the class structure remains permeable and the distribution of resources shows no signs of closing in on itself.

The rate of intergenerational social mobility is the variable that triggers changes in the distribution of resources: its fall below what is expected for the level of economic development signals the closure of the stratification system, that is, the class structure is no longer permeable between one generation and the next.

It is this same rate of intergenerational social mobility that, when its decline coincides with an already high share of income and wealth in the top percentile, specifically points to blocked mobility within distributional anomalies. That is why monitoring the distribution of resources through the rate of intergenerational social mobility, and not only through the distribution of income and wealth at a given moment, is the way to anticipate the closure of the stratification system before blocked mobility is already consolidated.

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