5 Myths About Our Land of Opportunity

[Toro]

1. Americans enjoy more economic opportunity than people in other countries. Actually, some other advanced economies offer more opportunity than ours does. For example, recent research shows that in the Nordic countries and in the United Kingdom, children born into a lower-income family have a greater chance than those in the United States of forming a substantially higher-income family by the time they're adults. If you are born into a middle-class family in the United States, you have a roughly even chance of moving up or down the ladder by the time you are an adult. But the story for low-income Americans is quite different; going from rags to riches in a generation is rare. Instead, if you are born poor, you are likely to stay that way. Only 35 percent of children in a family in the bottom fifth of the income scale will achieve middle-class status or better by the time they are adults; in contrast, 76 percent of children from the top fifth will be middle-class or higher as adults.

2. In the United States, each generation does better than the past one. As a result of economic growth, each generation can usually count on having a higher income, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than the previous one. For example, men born in the 1960s were earning more in the 1990s than their fathers' generation did at a similar age, and their families' incomes were higher as well. But that kind of steady progress appears to have stalled. Today, men in their 30s earn 12 percent less than the previous generation did at the same age.

3. Immigrant workers and the offshoring of jobs drive poverty and inequality in the United States. Although immigration and trade are often blamed, a more important reason for our lack of progress against poverty and our growing inequality is a dramatic change in American family life. Almost 30 percent of children now live in single-parent families, up from 12 percent in 1968. Since poverty rates in single-parent households are roughly five times as high as in two-parent households, this shift has helped keep the poverty rate up; it climbed to 13.2 percent last year. If we had the same fraction of single-parent families today as we had in 1970, the child poverty rate would probably be about 30 percent lower than it is today. Among women under age 30, more than half of all births now occur outside marriage, driving up poverty and leading to more intellectual, emotional and social problems among children.

4. If we want to increase opportunities for children, we should give their families more income. Of course money is a factor in upward mobility, but it isn't the only one; it may not even be the most important. Our research shows that if you want to avoid poverty and join the middle class in the United States, you need to complete high school (at a minimum), work full time and marry before you have children. If you do all three, your chances of being poor fall from 12 percent to 2 percent, and your chances of joining the middle class or above rise from 56 to 74 percent. (We define middle class as having an income of at least $50,000 a year for a family of three.)

5. We can fund new programs to boost opportunity by cutting waste and abuse in the federal budget. Can we cut enough ineffective programs or impose enough new taxes to put better teachers in classrooms, expand child-care assistance for working families and provide more financial aid to disadvantaged students while reducing projected deficits? The answer is a resounding no. Certainly, we should eliminate fraud, waste and abuse; raise new revenues; and scrub the budget for additional savings. But these alone won't get the job done. Just three rapidly growing programs - Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid - along with interest on the debt threaten to crowd out all other spending in a few decades.

Five Myths About Our Land of Opportunity - Brookings Institution

 

[JakeStarkey]

The first two of these "myths" were true before the Reagan perversion of American ideals beginning in the 1980s.

 

[mascale]

Brookings Institution (1), actually pays a Living Wage, or better, to its people, and (2), in (4), has no clue if anything it is showing from its "research" works. "Of course, money is a factor in upward mobility, but it isn't the only one; it may not even be the most important."

The Reagan Trajectory, in fact, tends to believe in Jelly Beans, and in graduate degrees. Brookings Institution is all for a high school education, especially like in the Washington, D. C. Public Schools at this time(?).

Brookings Institution has no clue about the Law in the United States. It had no such clue about the Law in Argentina. If anyone looks at the Five Prescriptions, then essentially the reason that the poor have fared so badly is that in fact, "They Brought It On Themselves,' anyone infers.

Likely, even the pricey schools are reluctant to admit that a lot of these people aren't even Jewish. The best of the Ivy League, in fact, even knows that even Sarah Palin is Perfected: And can see all of America, right there from her front porch(?). There are just too many other things to consider, in America, instead of the computing in the Law.

Anyone might guess that it helps to have your part of $2.5 tril. in Preservative Bucks for the status quo.

Money, at Brookings Institution, is nowhere on radar. There is just too much "other" to go around.

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
(Of course Argentine unions indexed all of their wages a fixed percentage. That was a wonderful idea, even Ivy League USA suggested--or whatever Milton Friedman's people were. Anyone already knows about the Ivy League support of it, even now--and even in Oslo.)

 

[California Girl]

#5 kinda blows Obama's healthcare claims outta the water. Oops.

 

[The Rabbi]

I would still quibble with #1. Labor laws are so much harsher in Britain than here, and tax rates much higher it makes it more difficult to get ahead.
I haven't thought through the statistics on it but I suspect there is a flaw in the methodology.

 

[editec]

The best way to avoid poverty in America is to start out not poor.

Everything else sort of flows from that.

You'll start out with a better education leading to a still better post k-12 education, and thanks to your already established superior social status, you'll also have the contacts that give you the heads up about where the better paying billets are, too.

 

[rightwinger]

From my personal perspective, we don't have the opportunity we once did.

My father got a job with the phone company when he got out of High School. On a blue collar, linemans salary and with my mother staying home, he raised four kids, owned a three bedroom house on an acre of land, sent four kids to college and retired at 60 with no debt.

I was able to go to college and pay for most of it working minimum wage jobs ($2 an hour). After college, I was able to support myself on a $6 an hour job. I moved out of the house at 21, got an apartment, bought a car. But my standard of living, even with my wife working and only two kids is not much better than my father enjoyed.

My kids are 22 and 25 and work full time and live at home. College costs $30,000 a year and there is no way to afford that earning minimum wage. Buying a house costs $300,000 and they are a long way from affording that. College graduates come out with massive debt and poor job prospects. Even with two salaries, it takes a long time to get on your feet.

 

[The Rabbi]

But compare your father's experience, c. 1940s I would guess, with his own father's or grandfather's, c.1900 or earlier.
Most people prior to 1900 were farmers. It is miserable work with long hours and low pay. There werent that many opportunities to get away from that life. And where they were, they involved working in dingy factories.
The nature of work has changed dramatically in this country.

 

[eagleseven]

I am convinced that comparisons to the 1950-1975 period are invalid because that period was exceptional in that the US remained the only country not devastated by WWII.

1950-1976 American blue-collar prosperity was unsustainable because it was built upon the ruins of Europe and Asia. To compare apples to apples, we must compare current times to the pre-war era, when the US had many competitors.

Prior to WWI, the American middle class would be considered impoverished by today's standards.

 

[PoliticalChic]

1. Americans enjoy more economic opportunity than people in other countries. Actually, some other advanced economies offer more opportunity than ours does. For example, recent research shows that in the Nordic countries and in the United Kingdom, children born into a lower-income family have a greater chance than those in the United States of forming a substantially higher-income family by the time they're adults. If you are born into a middle-class family in the United States, you have a roughly even chance of moving up or down the ladder by the time you are an adult. But the story for low-income Americans is quite different; going from rags to riches in a generation is rare. Instead, if you are born poor, you are likely to stay that way. Only 35 percent of children in a family in the bottom fifth of the income scale will achieve middle-class status or better by the time they are adults; in contrast, 76 percent of children from the top fifth will be middle-class or higher as adults.



3. Immigrant workers and the offshoring of jobs drive poverty and inequality in the United States. Although immigration and trade are often blamed, a more important reason for our lack of progress against poverty and our growing inequality is a dramatic change in American family life. Almost 30 percent of children now live in single-parent families, up from 12 percent in 1968. Since poverty rates in single-parent households are roughly five times as high as in two-parent households, this shift has helped keep the poverty rate up; it climbed to 13.2 percent last year. If we had the same fraction of single-parent families today as we had in 1970, the child poverty rate would probably be about 30 percent lower than it is today. Among women under age 30, more than half of all births now occur outside marriage, driving up poverty and leading to more intellectual, emotional and social problems among children.

4. If we want to increase opportunities for children, we should give their families more income. Of course money is a factor in upward mobility, but it isn't the only one; it may not even be the most important. Our research shows that if you want to avoid poverty and join the middle class in the United States, you need to complete high school (at a minimum), work full time and marry before you have children. If you do all three, your chances of being poor fall from 12 percent to 2 percent, and your chances of joining the middle class or above rise from 56 to 74 percent. (We define middle class as having an income of at least $50,000 a year for a family of three.)

5. We can fund new programs to boost opportunity by cutting waste and abuse in the federal budget. Can we cut enough ineffective programs or impose enough new taxes to put better teachers in classrooms, expand child-care assistance for working families and provide more financial aid to disadvantaged students while reducing projected deficits? The answer is a resounding no. Certainly, we should eliminate fraud, waste and abuse; raise new revenues; and scrub the budget for additional savings. But these alone won't get the job done. Just three rapidly growing programs - Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid - along with interest on the debt threaten to crowd out all other spending in a few decades.

Five Myths About Our Land of Opportunity - Brookings Institution

First-
As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, Brookings describes itself as independent and non-partisan. The New York Times has referred to the organization as liberal, liberal-centrist, centrist, and conservative.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21] The Washington Post sometimes describes Brookings as liberal but usually does not characterize the institution and has quoted both Republican and Democratic scholars.[22][23][24] The Los Angeles Times described Brookings as liberal-leaning and centrist before concluding these labels made no sense.[25][26][27][28] In 1977, Time Magazine described them as the "nation's pre-eminent liberal think tank."[29] The organization is described as centrist by the progressive media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.[12][30][31][32]

Brookings Institution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Second-
“I lived for about a decade, on and off, in France and later moved to the United States. Nobody in their right mind would give up the manifold sensual, aesthetic and gastronomic pleasures offered by French savoir-vivre for the unrelenting battlefield of American ambition were it not for one thing: possibility.
You know possibility when you breathe it. For an immigrant, it lies in the ease of American identity and the boundlessness of American horizons after the narrower confines of European nationhood and the stifling attentions of the European nanny state, which has often made it more attractive not to work than to work. High French unemployment was never much of a mystery.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/04/opinion/04iht-edcohen.2.20587034.html


Third-
.When Haitian refugees flee their island, do they aim for Cuba (53 miles), Turks and Caicos (110 miles), Jamaica (124 miles), the Cayman Islands ( 440 miles), or Florida (523 miles ) ? Why is that?
I guess America is their first stop on the way to Enland.

I like #4: conservative values.

#5? Get real, Federal programs never die.

 

[PoliticalChic]

The best way to avoid poverty in America is to start out not poor.

Everything else sort of flows from that.

You'll start out with a better education leading to a still better post k-12 education, and thanks to your already established superior social status, you'll also have the contacts that give you the heads up about where the better paying billets are, too.

"New figures from Smart Money show that only 3% of millionaires inherited their wealth. That means 97% earned their vast fortune themselves. Smart Money also reports that 80% of millionaires are extra thrifty shoppers. Many of them even clip coupons! "

Millionaires clip coupons and other secrets of the rich! on clarkhoward.com

And there are some 371 billionaires, as well.

From the tone of your post, I take it that you are neither one of the above referenced groups, nor are you sanguine about same.

I can't wait to see the threads/posts extolling those great adventurers amongst us, who invest their treasure and time to gain the success so many covet and scheme to deprecate.

 

[PoliticalChic]

The first two of these "myths" were true before the Reagan perversion of American ideals beginning in the 1980s.

Thought this might interest you:

"On January 11, 1989, in his last televised speech from the Oval Office, President Ronald Reagan, said: “An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American….We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom--freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs [protection]…. If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual. And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen, I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do.
“The shining city on the hill” Ronald Reagan, from John Winthrop (who took it from the bible.)


I like to be helpful.

 

[PoliticalChic]

From my personal perspective, we don't have the opportunity we once did.

My father got a job with the phone company when he got out of High School. On a blue collar, linemans salary and with my mother staying home, he raised four kids, owned a three bedroom house on an acre of land, sent four kids to college and retired at 60 with no debt.

I was able to go to college and pay for most of it working minimum wage jobs ($2 an hour). After college, I was able to support myself on a $6 an hour job. I moved out of the house at 21, got an apartment, bought a car. But my standard of living, even with my wife working and only two kids is not much better than my father enjoyed.

My kids are 22 and 25 and work full time and live at home. College costs $30,000 a year and there is no way to afford that earning minimum wage. Buying a house costs $300,000 and they are a long way from affording that. College graduates come out with massive debt and poor job prospects. Even with two salaries, it takes a long time to get on your feet.

" In 1949, someone who worked minimum wage over the summer would have enough money to buy the following items from that year’s Sears’ catalogue: A Smith-Corona typewriter, Argus 21 35mm camera, Silvertone AM-FM table radio, and Silvertone 3-speed phonograph.

In 2009, the same person, working the same number of hours at minimum wage, would now be able to purchase: A Dell laptop computer, HP color ink printer, scanner, copier, Canon 8 megapixel digital camera, GPS system, 32” LCD HDTV television, 8GB iPod Nano, GE microwave, Haier refrigerator/freezer, Toshiba DVD/VCR combo, RCA home theater system, Uniden cordless phone, RCA AM/FM radio, Camcorder, Sony PlayStation 2, as well as several other things."

Mark J. Perry, “Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History,” CARPE DIEM: Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History

 

[rightwinger]

From my personal perspective, we don't have the opportunity we once did.

My father got a job with the phone company when he got out of High School. On a blue collar, linemans salary and with my mother staying home, he raised four kids, owned a three bedroom house on an acre of land, sent four kids to college and retired at 60 with no debt.

I was able to go to college and pay for most of it working minimum wage jobs ($2 an hour). After college, I was able to support myself on a $6 an hour job. I moved out of the house at 21, got an apartment, bought a car. But my standard of living, even with my wife working and only two kids is not much better than my father enjoyed.

My kids are 22 and 25 and work full time and live at home. College costs $30,000 a year and there is no way to afford that earning minimum wage. Buying a house costs $300,000 and they are a long way from affording that. College graduates come out with massive debt and poor job prospects. Even with two salaries, it takes a long time to get on your feet.

" In 1949, someone who worked minimum wage over the summer would have enough money to buy the following items from that year’s Sears’ catalogue: A Smith-Corona typewriter, Argus 21 35mm camera, Silvertone AM-FM table radio, and Silvertone 3-speed phonograph.

In 2009, the same person, working the same number of hours at minimum wage, would now be able to purchase: A Dell laptop computer, HP color ink printer, scanner, copier, Canon 8 megapixel digital camera, GPS system, 32” LCD HDTV television, 8GB iPod Nano, GE microwave, Haier refrigerator/freezer, Toshiba DVD/VCR combo, RCA home theater system, Uniden cordless phone, RCA AM/FM radio, Camcorder, Sony PlayStation 2, as well as several other things."

Mark J. Perry, “Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History,” CARPE DIEM: Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History

They could also afford to buy a good used car and pay for college tuition on what they made.

The price of toys has gone down. The price of education, healthcare, homes, transportation,energy have all gone up well beyond what the low income workforce can afford. But if toys make you happy....so be it

 

[PoliticalChic]

From my personal perspective, we don't have the opportunity we once did.

My father got a job with the phone company when he got out of High School. On a blue collar, linemans salary and with my mother staying home, he raised four kids, owned a three bedroom house on an acre of land, sent four kids to college and retired at 60 with no debt.

I was able to go to college and pay for most of it working minimum wage jobs ($2 an hour). After college, I was able to support myself on a $6 an hour job. I moved out of the house at 21, got an apartment, bought a car. But my standard of living, even with my wife working and only two kids is not much better than my father enjoyed.

My kids are 22 and 25 and work full time and live at home. College costs $30,000 a year and there is no way to afford that earning minimum wage. Buying a house costs $300,000 and they are a long way from affording that. College graduates come out with massive debt and poor job prospects. Even with two salaries, it takes a long time to get on your feet.

" In 1949, someone who worked minimum wage over the summer would have enough money to buy the following items from that year’s Sears’ catalogue: A Smith-Corona typewriter, Argus 21 35mm camera, Silvertone AM-FM table radio, and Silvertone 3-speed phonograph.

In 2009, the same person, working the same number of hours at minimum wage, would now be able to purchase: A Dell laptop computer, HP color ink printer, scanner, copier, Canon 8 megapixel digital camera, GPS system, 32” LCD HDTV television, 8GB iPod Nano, GE microwave, Haier refrigerator/freezer, Toshiba DVD/VCR combo, RCA home theater system, Uniden cordless phone, RCA AM/FM radio, Camcorder, Sony PlayStation 2, as well as several other things."

Mark J. Perry, “Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History,” CARPE DIEM: Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History

They could also afford to buy a good used car and pay for college tuition on what they made.

The price of toys has gone down. The price of education, healthcare, homes, transportation,energy have all gone up well beyond what the low income workforce can afford. But if toys make you happy....so be it

Often, life is a choice between effort and excuses.

 

[mascale]

The White House probably thinks that the real problem is that they all act like boys, instead of men. The Brookings Institutition, would probably concur.

The White House, however, may not want to describe it that way, after all! For one or more things, there may even be "others!"

Anyone is still left to wonder if they agree with the apparent Brooking Institution conclusion, that "They just mainly bring it upon themselves:" Like so many seem to concur.

"Crow, James Crow: Shaken, Not Stirred!"
(And even though the facts are so obvious, to all kinds of people!)

 

[rightwinger]

" In 1949, someone who worked minimum wage over the summer would have enough money to buy the following items from that year’s Sears’ catalogue: A Smith-Corona typewriter, Argus 21 35mm camera, Silvertone AM-FM table radio, and Silvertone 3-speed phonograph.

In 2009, the same person, working the same number of hours at minimum wage, would now be able to purchase: A Dell laptop computer, HP color ink printer, scanner, copier, Canon 8 megapixel digital camera, GPS system, 32” LCD HDTV television, 8GB iPod Nano, GE microwave, Haier refrigerator/freezer, Toshiba DVD/VCR combo, RCA home theater system, Uniden cordless phone, RCA AM/FM radio, Camcorder, Sony PlayStation 2, as well as several other things."

Mark J. Perry, “Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History,” CARPE DIEM: Young Americans: Luckiest Generation in History

They could also afford to buy a good used car and pay for college tuition on what they made.

The price of toys has gone down. The price of education, healthcare, homes, transportation,energy have all gone up well beyond what the low income workforce can afford. But if toys make you happy....so be it

Often, life is a choice between effort and excuses.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Yea you can buy toys cheaper than you could 30 years ago. But if you want to buy a car, a home, go to college, get medical care....wages have not kept up with rising costs of essential consumer goods.

 

[eagleseven]

I can't wait to see the threads/posts extolling those great adventurers amongst us, who invest their treasure and time to gain the success so many covet and scheme to deprecate.

Don't worry. I'm almost broke right now, but I'm going to make it, and make it big.

I want to be so rich people like editec hate me, and I am not afraid to say it.

 

[PoliticalChic]

They could also afford to buy a good used car and pay for college tuition on what they made.

The price of toys has gone down. The price of education, healthcare, homes, transportation,energy have all gone up well beyond what the low income workforce can afford. But if toys make you happy....so be it

Often, life is a choice between effort and excuses.

What the fuck are you talking about?

Yea you can buy toys cheaper than you could 30 years ago. But if you want to buy a car, a home, go to college, get medical care....wages have not kept up with rising costs of essential consumer goods.

Sometimes folks are so dense that everything has to be spelled out for them, you know, like you.

Here's what I'm talking about:

Follow these instructions and the odds are very great that you will not be poor:
1. Graduate high school

2. Have a job for at least a year.

3. Don't have children before you are married.

Simple enough?

Further, a recent Treasury Department study varified a well know fact of economic life in the US: working folks who beging in the lowest income group rarely remain in that group by the end of a decade.(see Income Mobility in the US, 1996-2005, Treasury Department.)

For special cases like you, let me add instruction #4: live within your budget, don't look to get a Caddy if all you can aford is a Kia.
Work, Save, Plan.

Appreciate the opportunities you have in this country.

 

[PoliticalChic]

I can't wait to see the threads/posts extolling those great adventurers amongst us, who invest their treasure and time to gain the success so many covet and scheme to deprecate.

Don't worry. I'm almost broke right now, but I'm going to make it, and make it big.

I want to be so rich people like editec hate me, and I am not afraid to say it.

Hey, don't forget about us little people when you get there!

And don't think we won't appreciate living off your taxes!