2013
I have heard it said that if something is repeated enough times, true or not, it will be believed. As I read some of the absurd and 100% untrue rumors that circulate around the internet, I have no doubt that rumors or untrue beliefs do attain a life of their own.
The one perception that concerns me most is that the United States is devoid of opportunity, that this generation will not be able to advance higher on the economic scale that the previous generation. The proliferation of political rhetoric, especially from our President and his supporters and commentators is disheartening. Even beyond that it may be self-fulfilling as more and more Americans simply give up … thereby becoming more dependent on government.
Take a look at the commentary below. My favorite line is “inherit their parents” economic status.” So that’s it, your father was an assembly line work, so you inherit that status and have no other option or opportunity. By that logic I should have been a used care salesman living on $1,000 a month in Social Security. In fact what I inherited was a strong desire to achieve more than my father and to do my best to see that my children also had more opportunities than I did. Isn’t that what it is all about?
Opportunity exists everywhere for those who seek it and seize it. Just ask those who are successful, the 1%, 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%, 6% … You see, with rare exception those who are the target of political wrath and envy are those who have taken advantage of every opportunity whether it be an education, an entrepreneurial spirit, innovative skills or simply God-given talent. In many cases they overcame significant obstacles and rejection, even initial failure. And in all cases they did not give up and they worked hard, real hard.
Let’s look at one example, education. Perhaps we would all like to attend an Ivy League school. Most of us are not qualified to do so and most of us can not afford to do so. Does that mean we are shut out of an education? Some Americans may not find it feasible or affordable to attend any four-year college directly from high school, are they too shut out? No, they can start at a two-year college, then move on to finish a bachelor’s degree, they can work while going to school, they can go to school at night, they can even spend time in the military and earn credits to help pay for an education. There is still help available from some employers, even for a masters degree. In other words, there is opportunity. I went to night school for nine years three and four nights a week. I hated every minute of it, but I had to do it. I received a degree in 1978. I graduated high school in 1961 … I made some dumb and costly decisions.
However, an education is only the start and sometimes only a small part of the success equation. Attitude, communication skills, drive, initiative and the like are just as important, often more important. In my fifty year career in corporate American I frequently saw less educated individuals surpass their peers based on key factors beyond a degree from a prestigious school, in fact, I saw this happen when the successful person had no degree at all or no advanced degree.
If you want your own opportunity, forget the rhetoric you hear, remove the words “I can’t” from your vocabulary, stop blaming others, look behind different doors, value family, network every day, work hard and work smart . . . and don’t tear down others in the process.
Not every American will be a millionaire, not every American will be successful, they never have and never will be. However, every decision you make in your life large and small, every decision, has a direct and lasting impact on your future and ultimately on your upward mobility and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
One other word to forget; “entitled.” We are not entitled to anything, but opportunity and that still abounds.
We are in an era of blaming others, of being made to feel victims and needy with no hope unless we take from the successful to fund that to which we are entitled. We should find all that insulting and demeaning. It says we cannot think and do for ourselves, we are dependent on others … we are a failure. I think we are better than that … all of us!
By Timothy Noah on Sunday Morning, CBS March 17, 2013
(CBS News) Americans have always believed that their children will have it better than they do. But now that’s in doubt, according to our Contributor and New Republic editor Timothy Noah, whose latest book is titled “The Great Divergence”:
Americans know their country has a lot of economic inequality. But they tell themselves that’s OK. It’s OK because America offers a wealth of opportunity to those at the bottom. We’re unique that way.
The only problem is, it isn’t true.
President Obama said so in the recent election: “The rungs on the ladder of opportunity have grown farther and farther apart.”
Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said so, too: “Right now, America’s engines of upward mobility aren’t working the way they should.”
Our self-image as the land of opportunity comes mainly from two writers: One was Horatio Alger, who wrote dime novels about plucky street urchins getting ahead. The other was James Truslaw Adams, an historian who coined the phrase “the American Dream.”
Alger and Adams were not up-from-the-bottom types themselves; they were born into prosperous families and received good educations. But they lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the time of America’s rapid industrialization, and both saw that this young country offered many more opportunities for advancement than class-bound Europe.
Today we’ve got nothing like that kind of mobility.
The last time U.S. mobility was actually growing was the post-World War II era. Even then, the growth wasn’t as rapid as in Alger’s and Adams’ time. Today, many researchers believe, we have less mobility than we did as recently as the 1970s.
Meanwhile, Europe started beating us at our own game. One recent study ranked U.S. mobility below Germany, France, Spain, even Canada. Another found that American men were more likely to inherit their parents’ economic status than they were to inherit their parents’ height and weight.
What happened? Economists aren’t sure. But it’s been noted that countries where incomes are notably unequal — as they are in the U.S. — tend to experience notably less mobility.When those rungs get further apart, the ladder gets harder to climb. So even if you don’t care about inequality, you may have to, if you care about opportunity.
Related articles
- Economic Mobility (realclearpolitics.com)
- Morning Bell: Taking America from Welfare State to Opportunity Society (heritage.org)
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