In his latest Baltimore Sun column, UMBC political science professor Thomas F. Schaller explores the causes of decreased class mobility in the U.S.
Having just returned from a trip to Finland, Norway and Sweden, Schaller writes that in Scandinavia “a person’s income is far less dependent upon his or her parents’ income than it is here in the United States. In contrast to the U.S., Scandinavian countries are less class-anchored and more egalitarian and feature higher rates of political participation — all features that we aspire to have here in America but which have vanished in recent decades.”
Schaller connects this finding to conservative policy decisions, such as “shift[ing] the tax burden from wealth (inheritance and capital gains) to work (payroll, income taxes).” For details, read his full commentary in the Baltimore Sun.
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