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There is a positive correlation between upward mobility and the financial resources available to the individual when they enter the economy. Our economy is a game of "Slides and Ladders" with the "slides" (temporary employment, low pay, no health insurance) concentrated at the bottom and the "ladders" (good to great education, family and business culture and connections, available capital) concentrated at the top. The poor enter at the bottom and the plutocrats at the top. Effectively upward mobility is concentrated at the top. It is far likelier for a rich individual to become very rich than it is for a destitute person to become self supporting. The system is rigged to prevent any mobility upward for the bottom third of the population and practically guarantee it for the top tenth.
Their social and economic gains have come at a very great cost to everyone else in this country and these gains do not seem to be slowing down let alone be threatened by an evenly distributed “upward mobility”. In reality our economy has become dominated by downward mobility resulting from off shoring investment and industry as well as the failure of the home mortgage bubble. Neither of these were accidents but just part of the policy to destroy upward mobility for most and guarantee it for the few.
Well said. I live in an exclusive area has nearly zoned out all the white middle class. Our own exclusive school district. Less than 1% poor. CEO's, CFO, Surgeons, Professional sports players, Major Airline Pilots, etc. They all network with each other, their kids attend all the same functions. We have after school tutoring, after school sports training. The Country Club, etc.
I'm amazed how middle class whites zoned out of our area will not ask they the rich pay their fair share of the budget, how they will stand by and let their retirement benefits be cut. How they will not demand that their schools be better funded.
It's like they don't have the spine to stick up for themselves?
Nobody is claiming the individual cannot do what the government can do.
Government can make it easier on it's citizens to better themselves.
Free technical training, reduced rate university degrees, the ability to change jobs or start a business without the risk of losing health insurance, more progressive tax rates.
That is, if the basics of life in the United States are accomplished by the individual first. Then you might have a point.
Do you agree that a big reason for the lack of upward mobility lies in the preponderance of American's who don't graduate high school, have kids out of wedlock, don't go to college/trade school, can't read, engage in crime, etc?
You make it sound like American's have everything on the checklist checked off, but are being held down by society and societal pressures. The last time I checked, everyone has equal access to a high school degree, has the option to not have children out of wedlock, not engage in crime, etc. So where is the government failing? How are are individuals being successful and the government failing if in fact the basic tenets of living life in the USA are not being adhered to by a large segment of the population?
Its not my field, but in some late night alcohol-fueled solving of world problems, friends whose fields were social policy or public health told me that the biggest driver of social mobility is equal access to education.
If you don't have any access to education, you've got a much bigger hill to climb than they guy who does have an education. And the woman whose parents sent her to Harward has a much better start than the one who attended community college. Regardless of individual drive and hard work, these things will probably influence their careers for the rest of their lives.
Same thing, to a lesser degree, for health care, dental, etc.
On an entirely separate note, the countries who do have high social mobility, all have significant programs and resources spent on increasing the percentage of kids who grow up to be taxpayers. Not for altruism, but because moving people from the ranks of benefits claimants to productive taxpayers pay off massivly for countires.
But I think following this thread, that's exactly what Americans want to this country to be. I worked in Europe for a few Years. They just don't want to put up with 3rd world poverty in their streets and want to give up their great quality of life (4 weeks vacation annually, universal health care and job security, better access to education) for the exchange of the fact that their is no ceiling to the top and for the promise you can achieve your wildest dreams if you work hard enough. So if Americans want this country to have wide disparities in income and no ceiling to the top, than let them have it.
So what exactly do you want the government to do to increase "upward mobility?"
I'll standby for your answer because i'm genuinely curious what you think the US Government can do to empower those who can't even accomplish the most basic tenets of life in the US (ie. graduating high school/college/trade school/family/children/jobs, etc.). Upward mobility has to have a foundation, and that foundation has crumbled with the decline of the familial unit.
Enlighten us. What can government do that the individual obviously cannot?
Elaborate how the absence of either of these items is holding down American's. I haven't been held down. Have you? I didn't come from a rich family. Did you? So why are others held down? Where's the stumbling block assuming these people have graduated highschool, didn't have children at age 16/out of wedlock, learned a trade/went to college, etc? Where is the playing field not level? Who cannot do these things in America?
Here's an illustration of social mobility for most of the non-wealthy people today.
Most people choose that route. We all know that you have to graduate high school to get your foot in the door. Next, you have to learn a trade/go to college/start a business if you expect to have income. These are necessities. The rest is a matter of choice.
For example, many people have children without giving much thought as to how that will actually put a speedbump in the path to prosperity. If upward mobility is the goal, then why set out to have children before you get firmly planted on the path to success? Millions of American's have children because its some sort of rite of passage. Child-bearing age does not end at age 25, but you'd never know that by looking at most American households.
Don't get me wrong, we need procreation, but its time to quit asserting that the playing field is not level in America when the choices individuals make are usually the reason for the lack of their own upward mobility.
Interesting. Upward mobility is indeed a hard quest, especially if you are starting at the ass bottom. To be honest, I have gone to college with people from the ass bottom and they are the most determined people I have ever met. I takes someone special to climb social classes in this country. That doesn't mean that it can be done but nobody is going to hold your hand contrary to popular belief.
Upward mobility has to have a foundation, and that foundation has crumbled with the decline of the familial unit.
You could have, perhaps, said that a decade ago. The fact of the matter is that now we have a lot of well trained, educated, qualified people who are out of work because the government caved to business interests by getting rid of a regulatory law, Glass Steagall.
Now they should be retraining people and making sure our educational system is offering the best education that is possible.
We are opening our borders with our southern neighbors and turning into their form of government with the super wealthy on top and peasants down below.
Every nation does better with a strong middle class and we are killing ours. No middle class means those left on the bottom have no where to go.
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