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Comment by collyw | Hacker News Reader

Most countries don't allow this? You need to give some evidence of that.

European countries have free markets and most have better social mobility than the US. If you check the link in my original post you will see the US has relatively low social mobility for a developed nation.

Your comment reminds me of the attitude described in this sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oyKVAjISmI

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My European friends have indicated that kids are "tracked" from grade school, and your career is basically determined by your scores in 6th grade. In America you can flunk out of high school and still choose to pursue your chosen career. I have many friends who did just that, and have become very successful in their careers.

Do they really? The compensation for Software Engineers at least seems to be ridiculously low compared to those in the US, moreso in SFBA. I get that the social safety nets are very good but I don’t agree that social mobility is any easier in Europe.

Salary levels don't say anything about social mobility. Social mobility is about how easy it is to climb to highly paying jobs such as software engineering for people from underprivileged backgrounds.

There seems to be evidence that Americans overestimate social mobility in the US while Europeans underestimate social mobility in European countries. In practice, European countries also perform better in that regard. https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2018/02/daily-...

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