Sublime

while 85 percent of children born to upper-class families are raised by both of their birth parents, only 30 percent of those born to working-class families are.

Choice architects (such as Carolyn the cafeteria director) have many opportunities to choose defaults, and they can do so in ways that are self-serving or welfare enhancing.

Potential policy measures include progressive tax structures, minimum and maximum income levels, improved access to education, anti-discrimination legislation and improving the local environment in deprived areas.

A team of researchers at Stanford University, led by an economist named Raj Chetty, used newly accessible data from the Internal Revenue Service to write a series of papers that addressed questions of opportunity in American life. One, titled “The Fading American Dream,” asked a simple question: How likely is it that an American child will be