Renewing the American Dream: A Road Map to Enhancing Economic Mobility in America

Drawing on the expertise of Pew's Economic Mobility Project (EMP), its ideologically diverse group of principals, and three years of research (with more to come), we  have compiled a series of policy ideas in the report Renewing the American Dream: A Road Map to Enhancing Economic Mobility in America.

Comprised of more than 25 policy ideas, the breadth of topics covered in the road map demonstrates that there is no “silver bullet” to improve economic mobility in America. Throughout one's life, individuals make choices and experience institutions, such as schools and labor markets, that determine future economic outcomes.

Renewing the American Dream includes practical recommendations to make the Dream of upward mobility a reality for generations to come, including the need for a “portfolio shift” in the federal government's priorities in two ways:

• Encourage policies and promote activities that our research shows are important in order for Americans to experience upward mobility; and
• Reorient the existing $750 billion “mobility budget” to be more targeted towards programs for low- and moderate-income Americans, those least likely to experience economic mobility.