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>Yet we continue to ignore this because it runs counter to one of the founding myths of this nation: that anyone who is smart and hardworking can get ahead. Our

>Yet we continue to ignore this because it runs counter to one of the founding myths of this nation: that anyone who is smart and hardworking can get ahead. Our lack of hereditary titles has made it easy for people to dismiss the importance of family wealth and claim that everyone who is successful has earned it. Who your parents are has always mattered. Parents being able to give their children an advantage in the world is, in general, a good thing. Even the preamble to the Constitution of the United States talks about securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. It is human nature to want to work hard to better your offspring. It is one of the main motivating factors for many people. Any attempt to remove this advantage is bound to fail. We need to stop looking at individual opportunity as much as look at the bigger generational picture. As many have pointed out rags to riches in a single generation is very rare. However, rags to riches in 2 or 3 generations is not uncommon (see especially the experience with Asian immigrants). We need it so that anyone who is smart and hard working can end up better off than their parents, and ensure a better starting position for their own kids who if they are also smart and hard working end up even better. Any Procrustean policy of trying to make it irrelevant who your parents are is always going to end in frustration.

CobrastanJorji 7y ago
If rhetorical flourishes from US government founding documents are significant evidence, I would remind you that all men are created equal.
ergothus 7y ago
One change I'd like to see is in the opposite direction: We (U.S. society) should stop assuming that someone who has wealth is automatically more meritorious than someone without. We've taken the concept that "someone who is smart and hard working CAN improve their situation" and flipped it to be "someone in an improved situation MUST be smart and hard working". We should also watch out for what we consider "smart". Someone that is a complete manipulative and exploitative jerk can leverage that to become quite wealthy. They will defend it as "smart", and perhaps it is, but if don't consider that behavior valuable, we should stop pretending the wealthy cases are exceptions. And of course, to agree with some of your points, we shouldn't toss the baby with the bathwater, nor paint with too wide of a brush. That said, the American narrative and American reality are somewhat dramatically out of sync right now, so some adjustment seems prudent. When the U.S., champion of socio-economic mobility, is ranked rather poorly at the same compared to other developed nations, we become delusional hypocrites, not champions.

CobrastanJorji 7y ago

If rhetorical flourishes from US government founding documents are significant evidence, I would remind you that all men are created equal.

ergothus 7y ago

One change I'd like to see is in the opposite direction: We (U.S. society) should stop assuming that someone who has wealth is automatically more meritorious than someone without. We've taken the concept that "someone who is smart and hard working CAN improve their situation" and flipped it to be "someone in an improved situation MUST be smart and hard working". We should also watch out for what we consider "smart". Someone that is a complete manipulative and exploitative jerk can leverage that to become quite wealthy. They will defend it as "smart", and perhaps it is, but if don't consider that behavior valuable, we should stop pretending the wealthy cases are exceptions. And of course, to agree with some of your points, we shouldn't toss the baby with the bathwater, nor paint with too wide of a brush. That said, the American narrative and American reality are somewhat dramatically out of sync right now, so some adjustment seems prudent. When the U.S., champion of socio-economic mobility, is ranked rather poorly at the same compared to other developed nations, we become delusional hypocrites, not champions.