The evidence for mobility is limited, as is the mobility, and where it has occurred has been the consequence of specific events within specific societies. Dickens went from a poor background (was it really that deprived?) but his advance was largely due to publication changes and the greater popularity of English because of colonialism, particularly in Asia and America. Mass publication provided by greater education (same with Shakespeare) resulted in expanded economies.
But much of the present concepts of business and wealth mobility (my phrase is meant) arrived from changes in Victorian UK and concepts of business in the US, which occasioned the gilded age involving a rich caste separate from the general population. In US this enhanced aristocracy represented the Gilded Age where money was inherited. Trump and Musk are marked examples and politically dominate the technocrates, the owners of Amazon and Facebook. Inherited wealth dominates wealth castes.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution have generated great benefits to society, raising the living standards of billions and lifting millions out of poverty. But they have also exacerbated inequalities in our societies. Inequality is rising even in those countries that have experienced rapid growth. The social and economic consequences of inequality are profound and far-reaching: a growing sense of unfairness, precarity, perceived loss of identity and dignity, weakening social fabric, eroding trust in institutions, disenchantment with political processes, and an erosion of the social contract
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