America and Britain have the highest intergenerational correlations between the social status of fathers and sons.

As a result, talent is being neglected... Since the better-off can afford to keep their children in higher education and the poor cannot, breaking out of the cycle is hard.

Perhaps Americans put up with this system because they have unrealistic expectations of their chances of success... Just over half of those earning $75,000 a year think they will become very well off, but experience suggests that only 12-17% will make it.

Health outcomes too are decidedly unequal; the gap between the life expectancy of the top and bottom 10% respectively rose from 2.8 years to 4.5 between 1980 and 2000.