Born Poor - Staying Poor- Only 4% Rise to Middle Class

[packman]

?t=6

America's Disgraceful Caste System

[Cicada]

1. Wow. I had no idea it was this bad.

We have to fix this, it has to be a top national priority.

[ancianita]

2. Yep. Bad. I'm one of the 4%. Made it by hood and crook. "Enough" should be our economic standard.

Last edited Fri Jul 21, 2017, 02:29 PM - Edit history (2)

"Enough" is the standard cost of setting the poor up to get into and stay middle class.

Upward mobility and human development once had much more institutional support than they do now.

From the 1940's until Reagan, there was public and institutional encouragement of children and poor families. I don't see that now.

Now, within two generations, advancement through education is unaffordable even for middle class families, with colleges shutting out the poor through rapid inflationary tuition hikes.

Along with that, standards for just paying out the overhead -- food, clothing, shelter, health care, education, job -- on middle class life seem to have risen to unpayable cost levels. We used to consider the three basics for humans as food, clothing and shelter. In the West, it is six.

So now, if people have children while they're still poor, they will stay poor trying to maintain the six basics.

[Doug the Dem]

3. Leonard Cohen:

Everybody knows the system's fixed/
The poor stay poor and the rich stay rich/
That's how it goes/
And everybody knows

[geretogo]

4. This is the definition of a third world Banana Republic .

[LongTomH]

5. There's more downward mobility than upward mobility for young people now.

The children of the current middle class are frequently working low-paid, perhaps minimum wage jobs, even if they acquire education. The college grad paying off student loans working as wait staff is more than a cliche, it's often the reality.