<P> In their Great Gatsby curve, White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Alan B. Krueger and labor economist Miles Corak show a negative correlation between inequality and social mobility . The curve plotted "intergenerational income elasticity"--i.e. the likelihood that someone will inherit their parents' relative position of income level--and inequality for a number of countries . </P> <P> Aside from the proverbial distant rungs, the connection between income inequality and low mobility can be explained by the lack of access for un-affluent children to better (more expensive) schools and preparation for schools crucial to finding high - paying jobs; the lack of health care that may lead to obesity and diabetes and limit education and employment . </P> <P> Krueger estimates that "the persistence in the advantages and disadvantages of income passed from parents to the children" will "rise by about a quarter for the next generation as a result of the rise in inequality that the U.S. has seen in the last 25 years ." </P> <P> Greater income inequality can increase the poverty rate, as more income shifts away from lower income brackets to upper income brackets . Jared Bernstein wrote: "If less of the economy's market - generated growth--i.e., before taxes and transfers kick in--ends up in the lower reaches of the income scale, either there will be more poverty for any given level of GDP growth, or there will have to be a lot more transfers to offset inequality's poverty - inducing impact ." The Economic Policy Institute estimated that greater income inequality would have added 5.5% to the poverty rate between 1979 and 2007, other factors equal . Income inequality was the largest driver of the change in the poverty rate, with economic growth, family structure, education and race other important factors . An estimated 16% of Americans lived in poverty in 2012, versus 26% in 1967 . </P>

What is the current trend in income distribution in the united states