Australians are not destined to be less prosperous than their parents. The productivity dividend from the economic reforms of the 1980s and ’90s, followed by the China-led resources boom of the 2000s, has made two-thirds of today’s 40-somethings better off than their parents were at the same age.
A new longitudinal data study of intergenerational income mobility by the Productivity Commission confirms that Australia is the land of “fair go”. Of course, it’s not perfect, but Australian income mobility is close to the highest in the world, much higher than such disparate nations as France, China and the United States.