Self Image?

Here's a posting by Paul Krugman in his NY Times blog that points out that Americans have yet another error in their self image. I've bolded the key part:

Interesting paper from CEPR:

Despite our national self-image as a nation of small businesses and entrepreneurs, the United States small-business sector is proportionately not as large an employer as the small-business sectors in the rest of the world’s rich economies.

A couple of possible explanations. One is our lack of national health insurance; I personally know a number of people who gave up jobs at small firms in order to get health coverage. Another possibility, more favorable to the United States, is that in some European countries (Italy comes to mind) firms stay small to escape onerous regulations.

Either way, though, one more American myth bites the dust. We’re not independent free spirits; on the contrary, we’re more likely than Europeans to be cubicle rats working for big employers.

Another myth that Americans like to believe about themselves is that "America is the land of opportunity" meaning "you can rise from the humblest background to the very top". That isn't true. What is true is that it is a land of opportunity for the very, very rich. American has a gini coefficient closer to the third world than to the developed world (i.e. rich who tower above their "fellow" citizens in wealth). From the Wikipedia page, here are the gini coefficient numbers for the US as calculated by the Census Bureau:

1929: 45.0 (estimated)
1947: 37.6 (estimated)
1967: 39.7 (first year reported)
1968: 38.6 (lowest index reported)
1970: 39.4
1980: 40.3
1990: 42.8
2000: 46.2
2005: 46.9
2006: 47.0 (highest index reported)
2007: 46.3

Think about what the above numbers for the US means. You know that the rich were ascendant in the 1920s, you know that in the 1950s and 60s the "middle class" blossomed in the US. And you know that from Reagan on the right wing's philosophy of "trickle down" has meant that the poor huddle around the tap waiting for the odd drop to trickle out of the faucet.

From here you can see that the UN calculates the gini coefficient for the US at 40.8 but Japan is at 24.9, Sweden, 25, Canada 32.6, and the UK 36. On the other hand, China is 46.9 and Mexico is 46.1. Think about this. (Note: The US number differs between the Census Bureau and the UN's Human Development Index, but the basic pattern and interpretation remain the same.)

So much for self image.