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View Full Version : The American Dream is a MYTH




Mani
06-11-2012, 02:41 AM
I know the American Dream has been screwed up the last decade or so, but I didn't realize statistically speaking the odds of moving up in the US is even less likely than EUROPE. :eek: That I can't quite believe yet. It's shocking.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/american-dream-myth-joseph-stiglitz-price-inequality-124338674.html

Income inequality has become the subject of much debate in this country, in large part because of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

In his latest book, The Price of Inequality, Columbia Professor and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz examines the causes of income inequality and offers some remedies. In between, he reaches some startling conclusions, including that America is "no longer the land of opportunity" and "the 'American dream' is a myth."

While we all know stories of people who've moved up the social stratosphere, Stiglitz says the statistics tell a very different story. In the last 30 years the share of national income held by the top 1% of Americans has doubled; for to the top 0.1%, their share has tripled, he reports. Meanwhile, median incomes for American workers have stagnated.

Even more than income inequality, "America has the least equality of opportunity of any of the advanced industrial economies," Stiglitz says. In short, the status you're born into — whether rich or poor — is more likely to be the status of your adult life in America vs. any other advanced economy, including 'Old Europe'.

For example, just 8% of students at America's elite universities come from households in the bottom 50% of income, Stiglitz says, even as those universities are "needs blind" — meaning admission isn't predicated on your ability to pay.

"There's not much mobility up and down," he says. "The chances of someone from the top [income bracket] who doesn't do very well in school are better than someone from the bottom who does well in school."

Because the children of those at the top of society tend to do better than those at the bottom — thanks, in part, to better education, health care and nutrition — the income inequality that's slowly emerged over the past 30 years will only widen in the next 10 to 20 years.

If the root causes of income inequality go unaddressed, America will truly become a two-class society and look much more like a third world economy, Stiglitz warns. "People will live in gated communities with armed guards. It's a ugly picture. There will be political, social and economic turmoil." (Hence the book's subtitle: 'How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future')

The good news is Stiglitz believes this "nightmare we're slowly marching toward" can be avoided, citing Brazil's experience since the early 1990s as an example of a country that has reduced income inequality. Among other things, he recommends improving education and nutrition for those at the bottom of society, and eliminating "corporate welfare" and other policies which "create wealth but not economic growth."

For example, he cites the provision in Medicare Part D which forbids the federal government from negotiating prices with the drug companies. Over 10 years, that rule will generate approximately $500 billion for the industry, he estimates, but no tangible benefit for taxpayers or the economy as a whole.

Importantly, Stiglitz believes inequality of wealth and opportunity are hurting the overall economy, by limiting competition, promoting cronyism and keeping those at the bottom from reaching their potential.

"What I want is a more dynamic economy and a fairer society," he says, suggesting income inequality is ultimately detrimental to those at the top, too. "My point is we've created an economy that is not in accord with the principles of the free market."

Vanilluxe
06-11-2012, 02:58 AM
And we are electing guys who don't care!

Ender
06-11-2012, 08:24 AM
The American dream isn't achieved by government- it is achieved with gov out of the way.

Free economy and trade, real capitalism, no income tax etc. This is where people have the mobility and freedom to achieve their dreams.

And this is also why Ron Paul is so important.

fisharmor
06-11-2012, 09:14 AM
Note the premise here is that income inequality can only be remedied by top-down education.
In a system where hard work isn't rewarded, and it's all about knowing the right people and having gone through particular experiences that probably don't relate to the actual job you're trying to do, the only solution people can fathom is to provide access for more people to those experiences and contacts.
Cause, you know, God forbid we stop enforcing that system at gunpoint and let the market force it to be merit based.

Ender
06-11-2012, 11:19 AM
Note the premise here is that income inequality can only be remedied by top-down education.
In a system where hard work isn't rewarded, and it's all about knowing the right people and having gone through particular experiences that probably don't relate to the actual job you're trying to do, the only solution people can fathom is to provide access for more people to those experiences and contacts.
Cause, you know, God forbid we stop enforcing that system at gunpoint and let the market force it to be merit based.

People also seem to miss the part where most A students are working for C students or drop-outs.

AGRP
06-11-2012, 11:21 AM
You can sell raw milk in Europe. Many more things are legalized. This is what happens when a country is singled out to be destroyed. Eventually that country will become worse than their former competitors.

green73
06-11-2012, 11:25 AM
People also seem to miss the part where most A students are working for C students or drop-outs.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Ender again.

Zippyjuan
06-11-2012, 11:54 AM
A dream is a goal- something to work towards. If it is achieved, it is no longer a dream.

But the overall point of the article is true. It is more difficult than it used to be to move up. It is not quite true though that the US is the worst developed country for economic mobility. The other countries we may be in "competition" with are facing the same issues.

http://www.economist.com/node/15908469

Compared with people in other rich countries, Americans tend to accept relatively high levels of income inequality because they believe they may move up over time. The evidence is that America does offer opportunity; but not nearly as much as its citizens believe.

.

Parental income is a better predictor of a child’s future in America than in much of Europe, implying that social mobility is less powerful. Different groups of Americans have different levels of opportunity. Those born to the middle class have about an equal chance of moving up or down the income ladder, according to the Economic Mobility Project. But those born to black middle-class families are much more likely than their white counterparts to fall in rank. The children of the rich and poor, meanwhile, are less mobile than the middle class’s. More than 40% of those Americans born in the bottom quintile remain stuck there as adults.



How rising inequality affects social mobility is still unclear. Those born since inequality started to rise sharply are only just now becoming adults. However there are some troubling signs according to two papers to be presented at the Tobin Project, an alliance of scholars, this month. Christopher Jencks of Harvard University finds that income inequality has been accompanied by a widening gap in college attendance. Ms Sawhill argues that a rising correlation between income levels, likelihood of marriage and level of education will make society more stagnant.

The recession, meanwhile, may have exacerbated trends in inequality. The capital markets, points out Timothy Smeeding of the University of Wisconsin, have recovered more quickly than the housing or labour markets. This is troubling for the poor and the middle class, since homes represent a greater share of their wealth. Unemployment has been concentrated in America’s lower ranks. As the rich recover, poor and middle-class people may lag behind. Young workers may fare badly, too. Those who graduate in recessions have lower incomes in the long term, according to Lisa Kahn of Yale University.

osan
06-11-2012, 11:58 AM
This article is a raft of progressive blather. Terms such as "income inequality" are well suggestive of the authors political views and does much to assassinate his credibility.

What he fails to address entirely is the fact that the drive toward globalism absolutely demands the "buy in" (whether genuinely voluntary or coerced) of ALL the significant populations, this being especially true for those which constitute large economic powers. There is but a single such population that has yet to be completely reined in: the United States. Because we have not been characteristically docile as with most of the rest of the world, the globalists are now resorting to the destruction of the American way of life in order to break the morale of the population, frighten them through terror, destroy their wealth, and thereby gain acceptance of the yokes the masters have provided.

Why are many Europeans not suffering quite as badly as Americans, if that can even really said to be true? Because they are domesticated and, having been broken to their master's hand, are now give extra crumbs from his table, which he can afford to spare because he knows he has them under his tight control. The Americans, however, are not quite yet there and therefore must be hurt to ever increasing degrees until finally they break and accept their chains.

I predict that we will continue our slide until one of three things happens: the elite simply give up; we fight them off, hopefully killing them all; we capitulate and assume our roles as mastered people.

I am not sure of the OPs point in posting this diatribe of rank bullshit.

Brian4Liberty
06-11-2012, 12:01 PM
Rags to riches, a story line created by a gay pedophile. Welcome to Horatio Alger's home for wayward boys...

Ender
06-11-2012, 12:23 PM
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Ender again.

Huh?

schiffheadbaby
06-11-2012, 12:25 PM
Huh?

He is complimenting your post, saying he wish he could rep you

Noble Savage
06-11-2012, 12:36 PM
end Income inequality crash the dollar!