American life is built on the faith that people can rise from humble origins to economic heights. But many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe.

I’ve been meaning to write about income mobility for a while, and this new piece by one of my favorite economists in town, the Brookings Institution’s Scott Winship, prompts me to finally get around to it. What better way to start the new year than by learning that the American dream still lives on?

The richest Americans generally don’t have the loudest voices when it comes to politics—billionaires don’t have to shout to make their preferences known. But in recent months, as President Obama has cast the widening divide between the rich and the poor in the United States as unfair and unjust, prominent members of the “1 percent” have had an unusually public message for him: Cool it.

President Obama’s recent speech on income inequality and upward mobility has struck a chord with many Democrats. If the President keeps using this rhetoric, then it could become a central message of the 2012 campaign. If this happens, I would also bet that Elizabeth Warren will give the keynote speech at the Democratic Convention in 2012.