“Despite the Horatio Alger myth that anyone can make it in America, moving up the socioeconomic ladder is hard going: children from low-income families have only a 1 percent chance of reaching the top 5 percent of the income distribution, versus children of the rich, who have about a 22 percent chance.”
—“Making Schools Work”, David Kirp in NYT
image: Stephen Sheffield
The “American Dream” has morphed from being middle class to the equally unattainable hitting the lotto or becoming a pro athlete. You are either rich or dirt poor with a nearly non-existent middle class. It’s a 1 or a 0.
You can work hard all you want, but the only thing you’ll have to show for it is a worn-out body – and no healthcare to replace every worn-out joint.
What is the American Dream? During the 16th century the American Dream was freedom from oppression. The early settlers coming from Europe were seeking a place for a new beginning. These settlers sought a place where they could live their lives in a manner of their own choosing. Residents of this newly found land struggled mightily simply to survive. Living under the oppression of the King of England for over two hundred years reinforced the dream of freedom from oppression. During the 18th century the American Dream – Freedom from Oppression – was the fuel that fed the flames of… Read more »
Well there Wirbelwind, why is it easier to move into the top in Canada, or Europe as compared to America? Is it that we non-Americans actually took the dream to heart, or is it that Americans were duped? You tell me. BTW, Tom provided you some of the evidence. Here’s the money quote: “By international standards, the United States has an unusually low level of intergenerational mobility: our parents’ income is highly predictive of our incomes as adults. Intergenerational mobility in the United States is lower than in France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Norway and Denmark. Among high-income countries for… Read more »
Climbing up the social ladder is, usually, a slow process. It’s hard for one generation to make a leap from living in slums to upper middle class… it’s usually work of 2,3 generations.
That’s why hard work, work ethics, no drinking/smoking is so important : it helps in accumulating capital and, slowly, make things better for yourself and your children.
That is the problem.
Trust me, I don’t think you want to live in a world where the rich and the poor trade places too quickly. There is no stability in that type of world, and it smells more of luck and random happenstance than any actual ability or appropriate risk/reward. Revolutions, civil wars and other great social upheavels tend to do such things. None are great places to live. Rather than going from poor to Top 5 (a pretty lofty goal given how well off the Top 5 is in America compared to most places) why not consider poor to middle class (which… Read more »