Chetty, Raj, and Nathaniel Hendren. “The Equality of Opportunity Project.” The Equality of Opportunity Project. The Equality of Opportunity Project, 1 Aug. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. <http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/>.
Background- The Equality of Opportunity Project is headed by Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren, professors at Stanford and Harvard respectively. They have many papers, all of which they publish on their website. Their main focus is on opportunity and they even tackle the idea of the American Dream, albeit they only talk about the idea through pure economic terms. Their data is limited to the US and does not mention other countries.
How I used it- I used their research to determine social mobility in the United States. Using their data, I was able to compare it to data from other sources which had the economic mobility of other countries. This website gave me a lot of insight on why the US has a low relative social mobility, which they believe is caused by income inequality.
Corak, Miles. “Social Mobility and Social Institutions in Comparison Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States.” Economics for Public Policy. Cato Institute, 21 May 2012. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. <https://milescorak.com/>.
Background- Miles Corak is a professor at the University of Ottowa who studies social mobility in some of the richest countries in the world. He posts lectures that he gives on his website for anyone to see. He does a great deal of research on the immigration, the economy and a lot of other social/economic issues.
How I used it- Miles Corak had some of the most extensive comparisons of social mobility between countries that I could find. He updates his findings fairly often. This allowed me to compare the US in terms of social mobility to other countries with data dating back to 2011, which is not as recent as I’d like but, it’s still the most recent study out there.
Gass, Bick. “Poll: Half of Millennials Say the American Dream Is Dead.” POLITICO. POLITICO, 12 Oct. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/poll-millennials-american-dream-216632>.
Background- This article was written to convey the points made in a recent Harvard Institute of Politics poll.
How I used it- While I was able to get limited information from this article alone, it did springboard me to different sources, including the actuall polling data the author writes about.
Hargreaves, Sean. “America’s Economic Mobility Myth.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 9 Dec. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. <http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/09/news/economy/america-economic-mobility/?iid=EL>.
Background- This article talks about the social mobility of the US and focuses on the reasons why we don’t have as great a mobility as other rich countries.
How I used it- I used it to find other sources, but more importantly, I used this article to find reasons why the US is lagging in social mobility and spent a good portion of my paper talking about those reasons and what America can do to change the way things work now.
Isaacs, Julia B. “INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF ECONOMIC MOBILITY.” The Brookings Institute. The Brookings Institute, 28 July 2016. Web. 08 Dec. 2016. <https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/02_economic_mobility_sawhill_ch3.pdf>.
Background- The Brookings Institute is a think tank formed in 1916. They release papers and studies on various topics, in this case, social mobility.
How I used it- There was a lot of data on here that corresponded to or was exactly the same data that Miles Corak used. However, they had the added benefit of breaking down the population by fifths, and looking at how many people in each fifth moved to a different fifth, either up or down. This breakdown was critical in proving my main argument and helped paint a picture of just how bad Americas social mobility is.
Luhby, Tami. “The American Dream Is out of Reach.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 4 June 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. <http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/04/news/economy/american-dream/>.
Background- This article contained polling data concerning the American Dream. It focuses on millennials and their disbelief in the dream and how the latest generations are much more pessimistic about it.
How I used it- This poll allowed me to make the critical argument that the American Dream is already very close to dying. If no one believes in it, how can it be achievable? The article also gives me an insight on why so many young people are saying it’s just too good to be true, which allows me address some of their concerns in my paper.
Perez, Esten. “The Institute of Politics at Harvard University.” Harvard IOP Fall 2015 Poll | The Institute of Politics at Harvard University. Harvard Institute of Politics, 10 Nov. 2015. Web. 08 Dec. 2016. <http://iop.harvard.edu/survey/details/harvard-iop-fall-2015-poll>.
Background- The Harvard IOP poll shows the belief the average US citizen has of the American Dream. It broke down it’s data by race and party lines (the latter of which I did not use.)
How I used it- I used it to make help support an argument that I made which claimed that if the American Dream was not dead it was certainly on the decline. I showed how people along all races were losing faith at roughly the same rate.
Seelye, Katharine Q. “What Happens to the American Dream in a Recession?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 May 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/us/08dreampoll.html?_r=0>.
Background- This was a poll done by the New York Times that asked people about their version of the American Dream and whether or not it could be achieved.
How I used it- This poll gave me the three set definitions of the American Dream that I talk about in my paper. By taking the three most common answers, I was able to determine what factors I should take into account when determining whther or not the Amrican Dream was dead.
Vasquez, Ian, and Tanja Porcnik. “The Human Freedom Index.” Cato Institute. Cato Institute, 4 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. <http://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2016-11-29/these-are-the-freest-countries-in-the-world>.
Background- The Human Freedom Index is a study done every year that rates countries based on the various freedoms it might have. These include social freedom, economic freedoms etc.
How I used it- I used this index to determine that the US is not the best place in the world for freedom. This piece was essential in proving that one of the most popular answers to the question of the American Dream is also on the decline even though some people may not think about it.
Venator, Joanna, and Richard V. Reeves. “Mobility: What Are You Talking About?” Brookings. The Brookings Institute, 28 July 2016. Web. 9 Dec. 2016. <https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2014/06/05/mobility-what-are-you-talking-about/>.
Background- This article is published by the Brookings Institute which is mentioned above. In it, the author talks about the very basics of social mobility and breaks it down into two categories which are relative, and absolute mobility.
How I used it- This article gave me the idea to determine the economic opportunities through social mobility as well as a general knowledge of the subject in a way that was simple for me to understand.
Winship, Scott. “Does the U.S. Have Lower Economic Mobility than Other Countries?” National Review. National Review, 06 July 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2016. <http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/420794/economic-mobility-united-states-compared-europe-scandinavia>.
Background- This article talks about debunking the various criticisms about the belief that the American Dream is dying.
How I used it- I used it to gather data from other sources which allowed me to find data necesarry to my argument.
Rowan Counterintuitive 