[GrootheWanderer]

Clark’s research is very solid. Basically, he shows that social status is determined by innate, inherited characteristics that are only mildly shaped by social institutions or public policy.

[Jan_Sobieski]

Perhaps I overreacted...I have not read the full report. However, with so many (Horatio Alger) rags to riches stories in America (and looking at the wealth generated over the last 100 years) how can his assertion possibly be true?

Statistics have a special quality of aiding "Confirmation Bias"