NYT editorial on income equality in the U.S.: "The Land of Opportunity?"

[DeepModem Mom]

The Land of Opportunity?
Published: July 13, 2007

When questioned about the enormous income inequality in the United States, the cheerleaders of America’s unfettered markets counter that everybody has a shot at becoming rich here. The distribution of income might be skewed, but America’s economic mobility is second to none.

That image is wrong, and these days it abets far too many unfair policies, including cuts in essential programs like Head Start or Medicaid. The poor, we are told, can use their own bootstraps. President Bush got away with huge tax cuts for the rich in part because nonrich Americans, who make up most of the population, believe everybody has a chance of making it into the club. Unfortunately, the American dream is not that broadly accessible.

Recent research surveyed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a governmental think tank for the rich nations, found that mobility in the United States is lower than in other industrial countries. One study found that mobility between generations — people doing better or worse than their parents — is weaker in America than in Denmark, Austria, Norway, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Germany, Spain and France. In America, there is more than a 40 percent chance that if a father is in the bottom fifth of the earnings’ distribution, his son will end up there, too. In Denmark, the equivalent odds are under 25 percent, and they are less than 30 percent in Britain.

America’s sluggish mobility is ultimately unsurprising. Wealthy parents not only pass on that wealth in inheritances, they can pay for better education, nutrition and health care for their children. The poor cannot afford this investment in their children’s development — and the government doesn’t provide nearly enough help. In a speech earlier this year, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, argued that while the inequality of rewards fuels the economy by making people exert themselves, opportunity should be “as widely distributed and as equal as possible.” The problem is that the have-nots don’t have many opportunities either.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/opinion/13fri2.html?bl&ex=1184644800&en=3e79a000cf8bc523&ei=5087%0A

[NC_Nurse]

1. What privatizing does for you:

"America’s sluggish mobility is ultimately unsurprising. Wealthy parents not only pass on that wealth in inheritances, they can pay for better education, nutrition and health care for their children. The poor cannot afford this investment in their children’s development — and the government doesn’t provide nearly enough help"

Yippee. :eyes:

[Aviation Pro]

2. Just like the great lie of the Scamway/Quixtar/Alticor....

..."opportunity" the opportunity exists, in theory, for anyone to get mad-wealthy. However, that runs smack into the titanium steel wall of reality for 99.9% of the nation. Yes, the exceptions to the rule do exist, but just like Scamway, they are far and few between.

Want to see what the U.S. will look like 50 years from now if the present course is not corrected? Look south of the border at Mexico.

[bronxiteforever]

3. excellent and scary.The fundamental stability of society depends on fairness

Take economic fairness away and society's thread frays-the revisionism of the right wing who slam FDR's New Deal programs forget the lesson that fairness brings prosperity. The American dream is becoming and for some is a mirage. The real test of the next government will be its ability to resuscitate fairness.

[reprobate]

4. The greed of the 'Have's' is, ultimately, self defeating.

In order for them to stay in the ultra Have category, there must be the Have-somes to consume the shit that the Have's produce. The lower the pay scale of the masses, the less they can buy. Therefor, the less the Haves will sell. The less they sell, the less they'll Have.

Plus the fact that the poorer the masses, the more likely they are to rebel. Then the Haves will be dead haves, not sleeping haves. You might even say the Haves will be Halved. They will have been dimidiated.