Earlier generations of Americans believed in Horatio Alger’s stories that talent, ambition and hard work with some good fortune would a propel a person from poverty to riches.
“Winner-Take-All Politics” provides statistics indicating that the likelihood of a significant rise on the American prosperity ladder has become unlikely.
“Americans have always believed in upward social mobility – both an ideal and a description of reality… Alas, the evidence is overwhelming that upward social mobility has not increased at the same time that inequality has skyrocketed. Indeed, according to a number of innovative new studies, American mobility may well have declined over the last generation, even as inequality has risen…
“Compared with other rich nations, moreover, U. S. intergenerational mobility is surprisingly low, in part because the gap between income groups is so much bigger.
“The differences are often stark. In the United States, more than half of the earnings advantage (or disadvantage) of fathers is passed on to sons. In Canada, only about a fifth or less is. And almost all of the differences accounted for by the fact that Americans are much more likely to be stuck at the bottom or secure at the top than are Canadians.”
Who is more likely to be among the top earners, someone whose parents can afford the $50,000 a year for an Ivy League education (with all its prestige and later career promoting networking) or someone who can only afford to attend a city college or local state university?
Is educating dim witted progeny of the very rich while neglecting smart youngsters of the poor and middle class the type of public policy that will spur American business and develop our best potential leaders?
What we are creating is an American aristocracy, a privileged class. We worship capitalism rather than democracy… and both lose as a result.
