I'm sorry, but the belief that you can be happy and poor in America is hippy-dippy nonsense left over from an earlier and more equitable age. Nobody is happy wa

I'm sorry, but the belief that you can be happy and poor in America is hippy-dippy nonsense left over from an earlier and more equitable age. Nobody is happy watching their child die of a treatable disease, and no amount of inner peace will make your family's eviction ok. Thinking that those things are silly is a mark of inexperience and foolishness, and is no wiser than Candide's insistence that we live in the best of all possible worlds. The reality is that social mobility is a cornerstone of the American dream specifically because it actually does buy a better life for those who get it. The fact that such mobility does not exist for many who would choose it is a black mark on us and our society, and one we need urgently to correct.