This is a nice article to check after reading our supplemetary essay of capitalism: “International Comparisons of Economic Mobility,” in Getting Ahead or Losing Ground: Economic Mobility in America.
As talked by the essay, the United States has been famous and proud for its "Americam Dream", thus if you work hard, there will always be chances waiting for you. But according to most of the researches, the reality shows totally oppsite things.
This articles states that not only the mobility between classes is low, but also the classes are drifting apart. There is an obvious isolation of the new upper level class. But in the oppsite, the lower level class are struggling harder.
4 comments:
I really dislike the fact that the classes are separating because one of the leading causes of corruption is too large of a gap between the upper and lower class. I fear that if this gap gets too big that our government will have to deal with eliminating corruption when our economy is already hurt badly.
He is clearly assuming that those who are not working or are not making enough to sustain themselves have had an equal opportunity to achieve "the American dream". To me, it seems not that these people chose not to work, but that they are working so hard to just get by either because they have not had an equal opportunity or the right connections. Our nation is anything but purely merit based. He is also assuming that the upper class cares enough to help the lower class. I hope to believe some do, but I also know their are a lot who would keep their money in their own family. Ive heard many say--what you work for is what you deserve--yet that is not fair because there are so many hard working individuals who just never had the opportunity to education or excel in a high paying career.
I agree big class gaps are terrible for any state/country. The biggest gap separation in America history was in the late 1920s and some believe was a major reason for the Great Depression because only such a small percentage of the American population had purchasing power besides buying the necessary means to survive.
I think that the article’s concern that the United States will become “like Europe” and become a welfare state is unrealistic. Europe has developed differently than America, especially in values and goals. Throughout our history, the American party system has established ways to deal with the conflict of how the government should be involved in the market. The parties, while changing over time, have pretty much remained equal in terms of influence, resulting in different leading powers. Between this, and our checks-and-balances system, the American economy will not be transformed into a welfare state. The principles of self-help, individualism, and competition are too well ingrained into our nation.
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