Read or listen to Wednesday's Marketplace Money and hear about a new study that seems to show that Europe is offering more of the American dream than the United States.

Here are some quotes from the interview:

Diagnosis:
American men in their 30s today are worse off than their fathers were at the same age. ... [T]here is greater upward mobility in Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, and get this, France, than in the U,S....In other words, the odds are better here: If you're born rich, you'll stay rich, and if you're born poor, you'll die poor.

Part of it is, back to the '50s and '60s when there was greater mobility, you know, we had limited competition, and our economy, we had a social compact, we had strong unions, the GI Bill, Social Security, Medicare...

[We still have those to some extent] but we have now moved toward a society of hyper competition, both domestically and internationally, this thing that we talk about a lot, we've also had deregulation, which is, you know, again, I'm not saying these things are all negative. What I'm saying is how the environment has changed. Yes, Social Security is a great program, but things like the Earned Income Tax Credit, best anti-poverty program that we've had, you know, the past couple of years, the movement has been, you know, well, how do we sort of cut into it?


Treatment:
Chris Farrel goes on to recommend education and - get this - universal health care as the remedies with the greatest potential.

There you have it. Greater regulation. Less competition. Social compact. Universal health care. Essentially, things that the U.S. corporate media pundits defame as "socialism," are motors of prosperity.

Things have improved for minorities and women relative to white males over the past 30 years and that is a good thing. They have in other countries as well, however.

See also background on the original report at http://www.economicmobility.org/