|
Abby Subark is a mother of two from Boston.
"For my kids, I'm ...I'm nervous. I don't know if it's a given that they'll be able to achieve their American dream."
She may be right, more than hard work or education, the best way to get rich in America is to be born rich.
It is the case that somebody who is in the upper third of income, pool scores, in the bottom on tests when they are in eighth grade, is more likely to go to college and finish college than a, a poor kid er, with the top scores. That's what the working person's children are up against.
The think tank, the Economic Policy Institute finds it would take a poor couple with 2 children 9 or 10 generations to achieve middle class status. That's about 200 years. The hallmark of American opportunity has always been the ability to do better than your parents. But compared with similar developed countries, the United States ranks fifth out of six for so-called intergenerational mobility.
If you look at the mechanisms for upward mobility that were so readily available 50 years ago, 25 years ago, they are becoming further out of reach.
Like plentiful factory jobs with good wages and affordable education and health care. And white families are twice as likely as blacks to be upwardly mobile. For most people in America today, where you end up depends on where you start.
If you started in the middle-income class, you know, about 40 to 45 percent of what you are making right now is due to the fact that your parents were in the middle-income class. The rest is up to you.
He sides with those who believe this economy is creating opportunities for everyone.
But for the millions of people who find themselves below the poverty line and the millions more who are the working poor, their starting point for the American dream leaves them painfully far away from the middle class.
Christine Romans, CNN, New York.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
be up against:面临面对
hallmark:a typical feature 特点
upward mobility :上进心
|