the rich stay rich

Social mobility is under challenge as study shows descendants of 19th-century wealthy have kept their class advantages. Research shows that the descendants of people who in 1858 had "rich" surnames such as Mandeville, Percy and Darcy, indicating they were descended from the French nobility, are still substantially wealthier in 2011 than those with traditionally "poor" or artisanal surnames.

"The modern meritocracy is no better at achieving social mobility than the medieval oligarchy." Gregory Clark, a professor of economics at the University of California notes "The huge social resources spent on publicly provided education and health have seemingly created no gains in the rate of social mobility," he said.

"Over the last 150 years, the rate of social mobility revealed by surnames is slower than most social scientists have estimated – and is possibly slower than in the middle ages," Clark said.

The findings, described by Clark as sending a "clear, powerful, shock to our casual intuitions", undermine the commonly held belief that important societal developments such as the creation of the welfare state helped to level modern society's playing field.