The rate of social mobility in England over the past century and a half was substantially slower than most social scientists believe – and possibly slower than in the Middle Ages.

That is the conclusion of a major research project by Gregory Clark, professor of economics at the University of California, Davis, who recently presented his results to the annual conference of the Economic History Society at the University of Cambridge.

http://econ.arizona.edu/docs/Seminar_Papers/Sp%2011_Clark.pdf

Makes you wonder if welfare spending is simply to sooth our conscience doesn’t it?