structural:summarization, information:filtering, information:extraction, structural:scholar_edition
Income mobility

Income mobility is another factor in the study of income inequality. It describes how people change their economic well-being, i.e. move in the hierarchy of earning power over their lifetime. When someone improves his economic situation, this person is considered upwardly mobile.Mobility can vary between two extremes: 1) rich people stay always rich and poor stay always poor: people cannot easily change their economic status and inequality then seems as a permanent problem. 2) individuals can easily shift their income class, e.g. from middle earning class to upper class or from lower class to middle class. Inequality is "fluid" and temporary so it does not create a serious permanent problem.