Mitt Romney: '95% Of Life Is Set Up For You If You're Born In This Country'

[Lakhota]

By Ryan Grim and Arthur Delaney

WASHINGTON -- In a less-examined portion of the recently revealed remarks Mitt Romney made during a private fundraiser in May, the presidential candidate told donors that "95 percent of life is set up for you if you're born in this country."

Romney told the donors there are people who say to him, "'Oh, you were born with a silver spoon,' you know, 'You never had to earn anything,' and so forth. And, and frankly, I was born with a silver spoon, which is the greatest gift you could have, which is to get born in America. I'll tell ya, there is -- 95 percent of life is set up for you if you're born in this country."

Romney delivered his comments in the context of a story he told about observing miserable labor conditions in a Chinese factory he had visited. (Watch the remarks above, clipped from the full video courtesy of Mother Jones.)

If 95 percent of life is set up in this country, however, it certainly doesn't reach 95 percent of the people. The U.S. poverty rate has hovered at or near 15 percent for the past few years. Moreover, the same 15 percent of the population is not constantly poor. In fact, recent research suggests that only 15 percent of Americans will not experience some type of economic insecurity in their lives.

Fully 85 percent of Americans by age 60 will have experienced unemployment, sharply lower income, poverty or the use of welfare for at least a year of their adult lives, according to a 2012 longitudinal analysis by Mark R. Rank, the Herbert S. Hadley professor of social welfare at Washington University in St. Louis. For black people born in America, life is even less set up. Whites by age 60 were 43 percent less likely than blacks to have been poor and 42 percent more likely to have experienced affluence, according to Rank.

Rank examined social mobility in the U.S. and the likelihood that Americans would face economic fortune or misfortune. His research shows that a large percentage of Americans are poor at some point in their lives and that safety net programs don't eliminate the sting.

Romney's reference to the 95 percent "set up" sheds further light on his attitude toward the 47 percent of Americans he said don't take personal responsibility and care for themselves.

More: Mitt Romney: '95% Of Life Is Set Up For You If You're Born In This Country'

 

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Wow, that's news to me, I was under the impression that republicans viewed this country as a meritocracy.