"I don't think you can blame immigrants as the deciding factor in crime"

I'm not blaming immigrants. At this point, we have 2nd and 3rd generations of citizens that have not integrated into US culture and continue to keep their own. You don't see this in countries like Sweden, Denmark, or Finland for instance.

When you do, things like this happens:

http://unitedwithisrael.org/it-was-like-a-war-zone-muslims-r...

I'm blaming people with broken cultures and views that don't integrate into their host country. Abandoning broken cultures is a good thing as it helps us progress as a society. We are so politically correct in the US, broken cultures are not only allowed to survive, but thrive.

"I'm genuinely arguing from the perspective of wanting a better society,"

We have a great society now. Of course it's not perfect and could use some changes. However, limiting successful people and encouraging people to not work is not the answer.

The ability to succeed has been what's made us great in the first place. We should be encouraging and rewarding success and making it easier for the average person to start and build a company, not harder.

"in terms of social mobility, the data directly contradicts you:"

You have:

-High taxes (When added up, Sweden is close to 70%..which is on par with Denmark, Finland, Norway, and France)
-The inability for the average person to start a company because of government restrictions
-A lack of investors
-Culture norms like Jante law (which looks down upon people achieving success..a requirement for social mobility): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Jante

With all of this said, there can't possibly be that much social mobility. It limits the success of anyone that truly wants to improve their lifestyle and redistributes their wealth to everyone, even if they don't contribute anything to society for the better. This isn't the same as social mobility.

The US has great social mobility. If you are willing to put the time and effort, you can go from poor, to middle class, and even rich. You don't even have to have an education. The possibilities are endless.

In countries like Sweden, your possibilities are limited severely, but the amount of free money you get from the government is much more. So, you pretty much end up with one class of people. Both low and upper classes converge toward the middle.

The average wages show this in practice:

http://lostinstockholm.com/2012/01/10/average-salaries-in-sw...

All successful companies (IKEA is a good example of this) (and even many singers) leave Sweden because of these harsh restrictions.

"The US has a strong culture of valuing social mobility (pull yourself up by your own bootstraps), but it's not the case in practice."

It's not the case now because so many people aren't willing to put the work into it. All of the successful people that I know worked nights, days, and weekends for years. The majority of people just aren't willing to put the effort to succeed. They want to party during college, have fun on the weekends, and hang out with their friends or watch TV at night. This is fine, but you can't expect to get ahead in any career unless you sacrifice.

"I agree that it's not a good feeling to watch your tax rate go up in response to success. But societies that don't engage in redistributive practices in that vein empirically end up in a worse spot across the board (economically and socially)"

I disagree. Everyone talks about how bad the US is, yet we have millions of immigrants begging to get in every year and are still the most powerful country in the world.

This isn't by luck. It's because of the economic system currently in place and the ability for anyone to succeed.