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Can you post some of the research that you found that contradicts with measures that I have posted? Any measure that I came across clearly shows it becomes more difficult to move up on. It also shows the middle class is evaporating.
I agree that we are in a better situation than say Mexico, China, and India. If it makes you feel better, I am happy for you. When it comes to the developed world, however, the picture does not look that great.
You made the claim that America is no longer the land of opportunity. I called that claim crap, because it's crap.
Paul Orfalea started Kinko's with a $5,000 loan and built it to over 1,200 locations before selling off half the business for $300,000,000.
John Schmatter founded Papa Johns Pizza. He did work in a bar his dad owned half of. John sold his car to raise the money needed to buy out the other owner of the bar. He then started making Pizzas to sell to the patrons. Over time they started delivering and the company spread to over 3,300 locations.
Ken Hendricks started ABC Supply Co. Inc. when as a young roofer he noticed that the supply company he was dealing with didn't give him the service he needed. He was able to save the money to buy that first place and over the years added 330 locations across the country. He bought out supply companies that were strugling and asked the employees how they would fix the problem, then he let them fix the problem at each location. When he died not to long ago his company was valued at over $3billion. Side note: Ken died doing what he had done his entire life, He fell from a roof he was repairing. He never finished High School and became a success anyway.
My point is that people succeed because they can, not because of a time in history. So many people say they want to live in another time. It was easier back then. Guess what? It is even easier now. Maybe the way to success is differant now. That just means that you need to do something differant.
If what you are doing is the same thing that you have always done and you are still not successfull, then maybe what you need to do is something else.
While all these stories - and thousands like them - are true, too many people don't want to hear it. They want to sit around, claim it can't be done, and expect the government to give them whatever they want.
One of the biggest problems in America is that too many people are spoiled and lazy.
You made the claim that America is no longer the land of opportunity. I called that claim crap, because it's crap.
Prove your claim.
OK, I see the problem here. We have different definitions of "land of opportunity".
I fully agree with you that America IS the land of opportunity for an average Mexican, Indian, or Chinese. What I say and show with mobility statistics is that America is not a land of opportunity for an average American.
OK, I see the problem here. We have different definitions of "land of opportunity".
I fully agree with you that America IS the land of opportunity for an average Mexican, Indian, or Chinese. What I say and show with mobility statistics is that America is not a land of opportunity for an average American.
And that's because the average American is facing two things:
1. He/she is either already living pretty darned high on the hog.
2. He/she simply isn't willing to do what is necessary to succeed.
The opportunities are there, regardless of what's holding people back. I've worked with a LOT of low-income people, including unemployed persons and/or minorities.
The #1 issue that keeps them from succeeding is the belief that it cannot be done. So they sit and wallow in poverty while surrounded by people who are succeeding - people who are often less intelligent, and have less opportunities.
Paul Orfalea started Kinko's with a $5,000 loan and built it to over 1,200 locations before selling off half the business for $300,000,000.
John Schmatter founded Papa Johns Pizza. He did work in a bar his dad owned half of. John sold his car to raise the money needed to buy out the other owner of the bar. He then started making Pizzas to sell to the patrons. Over time they started delivering and the company spread to over 3,300 locations.
Ken Hendricks started ABC Supply Co. Inc. when as a young roofer he noticed that the supply company he was dealing with didn't give him the service he needed. He was able to save the money to buy that first place and over the years added 330 locations across the country. He bought out supply companies that were strugling and asked the employees how they would fix the problem, then he let them fix the problem at each location. When he died not to long ago his company was valued at over $3billion. Side note: Ken died doing what he had done his entire life, He fell from a roof he was repairing. He never finished High School and became a success anyway.
My point is that people succeed because they can, not because of a time in history. So many people say they want to live in another time. It was easier back then. Guess what? It is even easier now. Maybe the way to success is differant now. That just means that you need to do something differant.
If what you are doing is the same thing that you have always done and you are still not successfull, then maybe what you need to do is something else.
Look great success stories, but again the idea of this thread, Income Disparity, is more relevant when you look at not Ken Hendricks but his employees.
The question is whether Ken Hendricks' employees kept their income share over time as their productivity went up or the wealth increase just went to Ken Hendricks. I don't know about this folk and his company, but statistics suggest that real wages have been stagnant for the last thirty years while rich were getting richer.
I don't know why it is so hard to understand. We had an increase in real GDP which was not shared equally among different groups. Top 20 percent have seen their share gone up, while everyone else has been either worse off or stayed the same in the past thirty years. Not only that but top 20 percent are more or less the children of top 20 percent of the past.
We are not talking about welfare, government handouts, consumption and spending on entertainment etc. We are not even talking about government policy or anything.
We are talking about a VERY BASIC fact that middle class or working class and every other class but the rich have been worse off (or stayed the same at best) in real terms in the last thirty years, at a time we have seen economic growth. I really do not understand how it doesn't bother some of you.
Right now, I make more money than both of my sons (in their early 20s) combined. But that's largely due to the fact that I have multiple college degrees and 25 years in the same profession.
The likelihood of your sons working in the same profession isn't something that isn't... likely. The Department of Labor predicts that the average worker will change professions at least 3 times due to obsolescence and technological change during their life time. There are serious structural shifts that go beyond advanced degrees (which are far more expensive to come by) than experienced by previous generations.
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People need to spend less time whining and complaining, and more time simply making good choices and working hard.
Oh, puleeeze! Making the right choice in a rapidly changing work environment requires a certain degree of luck and information which is difficult at best to obtain. As for hard work, there are more than a few people who worked their behinds off that are now sitting in unemployment offices, including quite a few with multiple advanced degrees.
Look great success stories, but again the idea of this thread, Income Disparity, is more relevant when you look at not Ken Hendricks but his employees.
The question is whether Ken Hendricks' employees kept their income share over time as their productivity went up or the wealth increase just went to Ken Hendricks. I don't know about this folk and his company, but statistics suggest that real wages have been stagnant for the last thirty years while rich were getting richer.
I don't know why it is so hard to understand. We had an increase in real GDP which was not shared equally among different groups. Top 20 percent have seen their share gone up, while everyone else has been either worse off or stayed the same in the past thirty years. Not only that but top 20 percent are more or less the children of top 20 percent of the past.
We are not talking about welfare, government handouts, consumption and spending on entertainment etc. We are not even talking about government policy or anything.
We are talking about a VERY BASIC fact that middle class or working class and every other class but the rich have been worse off (or stayed the same at best) in real terms in the last thirty years, at a time we have seen economic growth. I really do not understand how it doesn't bother some of you.
And one of the very basic, fundamental facts that you seem to be missing (I'm guessing that you may be very young) is the fact that in the last 25 years we've had an explosion of extremely highly-paid professional athletes and entertainers - numbers and money that have grown exponentially. Never before have there been so many people paid so much for so little.
This has done nothing to the average American. But what it has done is increase the "top end" and make it look like something it is not.
And that's because the average American is facing two things:
1. He/she is either already living pretty darned high on the hog.
2. He/she simply isn't willing to do what is necessary to succeed.
The opportunities are there, regardless of what's holding people back. I've worked with a LOT of low-income people, including unemployed persons and/or minorities.
The #1 issue that keeps them from succeeding is the belief that it cannot be done. So they sit and wallow in poverty while surrounded by people who are succeeding - people who are often less intelligent, and have less opportunities.
It can be done if people want it badly enough.
Well, look, I don't know what goes on in Omaha, but up here I see a lot of hard working people lose their jobs and move to part time jobs, lose their pensions, lose their health care etc. I am not even talking about the recent recession. Even through the previous booms, we have seen declined or frozen wages or increases at or below inflation, elimination of pensions, increase in health care deductibles or lose benefits etc. None of these people fit into your two categories.
The likelihood of your sons working in the same profession isn't something that isn't... likely. The Department of Labor predicts that the average worker will change professions at least 3 times due to obsolescence and technological change during their life time. There are serious structural shifts that go beyond advanced degrees (which are far more expensive to come by) than experienced by previous generations.
Oh, puleeeze! Making the right choice in a rapidly changing work environment requires a certain degree of luck and information which is difficult at best to obtain. As for hard work, there are more than a few people who worked their behinds off that are now sitting in unemployment offices, including quite a few with multiple advanced degrees.
First of all, neither of my sons works in the same profession as do I. So your first paragraph is irrelevant.
"Oh puleeeze!"? What is this, Junior High? We are in an economic down-time. It is following unprecedented boom-time. That's the nature of these cycles. Not everybody is going to go straight up in a straight line. Everybody is going to hit hard times, snags, etc.
So what's to do about it? Sit on your butt and complain? I guess that is what a lot of people are choosing to do.
You will soon learn that you are arguing with the ostriches.
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