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Equality, Opportunity, and the American Dream--is Bull Crap!


Troy

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Saving Horatio Alger: Equality, Opportunity, and the American Dream

The stain of racism is a stark, depressing reminder of how far short of its founding ideals the nation still falls. Even with the legal scaffolding of American racism dismantled—and even with an African-American in the White House—black children live in the poorest neighborhoods and attend the worst schools; they have the lowest chance of graduating college, and the highest risk of incarceration. 

But after decades of rhetoric and reform, the American education system is failing as an engine of social mobility. The poorest children (black and white alike) receive the worst public education. Achievement gaps between poor and affluent children tend to widen, rather than narrow, during the K-12 years.

 

saving-horatio-alger.jpgAmericans celebrate the Horatio Alger ideal, that all individuals can succeed by their own efforts in a level playing field, yet social mobility rates in America are now lower than those in Europe, risking America becoming an ossified, class-based society. Richard Reeves argues in this Brookings Essay that Alger is on the ropes, that the ideal of American egalitarianism is threatened by a variety of forces related to income, wealth, family structure and education. And yet the answers do not lie in the European model. Instead, Reeves argues, reviving the promise of the American Dream requires a quintessentially American solution, saving Horatio Alger.

THE BROOKINGS ESSAY: In the spirit of its commitment to high-quality, independent research, the Brookings Institution has commissioned works on major topics of public policy by distinguished authors, including Brookings scholars. The Brookings Essay is a multi-platform product aimed to engage readers in open dialogue and debate. The views expressed, however, are solely those of the author. Available in ebook only.

Print Length: 21 pages
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press (August 20, 2014)

 

 

 

Edited by Troy
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This would be great information if people understood why this matters and why is worth trying to do something about it.

The reality is even worse than these graphics show.  The top 20% starts at $178K, living in NY City on that income would not put you in the lap of luxury.  Indeed anyone in the bottom 60% (making less than $50K) would be struggling in NYC and living a very modest life anywhere else.

Another factor distorting this issue is wealth. People like Anderson Cooper who was mentioned in the article as having an $11,000,000 annual income.  But what the article failed to mention was the fact that Cooper is an heir to the Vanderbilt fortune. Cooper and his children's, children, children are set for life.

One also has to consider what is an Anderson Cooper actually doing that warrants an $11 million dollar a year salary.  Surely there someone else around who could do the job BETTER for just one million dollars a year.  Folks like Cooper get opportunities that people, stuck on the lower three quintiles will never get.  

As Trump is so quick to remind us the wealthy OWN the politicians as a result they get legislation in acted which benefit the wealth and hurt the poor.  My salary will be taxed for example and Anderson cooper will inherit his fortune tax free.  I'd also be willing to bet when I was in the lower end of the top 20%, that I paid a much higher percentage of my salary in taxes than Anderson paid of his $11 million annual income.  

We all accept that the world is not fair.  But I'll never understand why people are so goddamned greedy.  How can people who are so extremely wealthy continue to hoard so much wealth for themselves while so many people around them are struggle just to survive.

Obama promised change the people desperately desired.  Maybe Bernie will make a difference. 

 

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I just finished "Between The World And Me", Ta-Nehisi Cates', recently released book which is written in the form of a letter to his 15-year-old-son and is, in a way, relative to the subject of this thread. I had read excerpts from this book as well as Cornel's West's review in response to Toni Morrison's recommendation, so I decided to see for myself what all the hoopla was about. Sorry, Cornel. I side with Toni on this one. I found this to be a remarkable book and I was impressed not only with its message but also with the concise writing skills of Coates who is a wordsmith extraordinaire.
 
Coates' narrative centers around "The Dream", his designation for what he feels is at the root of white privilege. According to the author, the dream is a toxic state of mind that infects the ethnic pool of those who call themselves "white" and "The Dream" involves their deluded perception of America. Deluded because this oligarchic country is not the noble democracy they believe it to be but is, among other despicable things, an exclusive society where institutionalized racism is as American as apple pie. Which is why black people have no claim to The Dream, Coates contends, and even if they do all the right things and are fortunate enough to acquire financial gain, their white counterparts will still be better off since they belong to the elite club that automatically rejects equality for people with black skin. Coates further extends this entitlement to lower class Whites who he thinks are also better positioned than their black counterparts just by virtue of being white. To him, this status quo is maintained because money is the god in whom America trusts. and the bulk of it is in the hands of a white power structure which will keep it by any means necessary.
 
Coates ends his book on a fatalistic note of resignation, implying that America's slave descendants just have to tolerate white citizens because there's no hope for their redemption, and things could be much worse for blacks. So, if Coates' pessimistic theory is true, the goal of becoming a latter day Horatio Alger, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, is an aspiration that has restrictions when it comes to ambitious, hard working African Americans.
 
To me, another take-away from Coates' dissertation is that in America, black and white history are intertwined and from the beginning to the present, the master/slave relation has continued to exist. Being black in America, whether literally or figuratively, is to be under the yoke of the White Dream. Another interesting observation Coates makes is that swagger and bluster and sassiness are defense mechanisms which black folk have developed over time in reaction to a deep rooted fear that has its origins in the other side of the white dream coin: the black nightmare.
 
Coincidentally, (?) while reading "Between the World And Me", I just happened to come across an article on James Baldwin which included a quote from one of the essays contained in his book, "The Fire Next Time". Re-visiting James Baldwin, I confess to underestimating him. He was indeed, a sage and a seer. In a letter to his nephew, Baldwin wrote: "The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them (white people) and I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love, for these innocent people have no other hope. They are in effect still trapped in a history which they do not understand and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it."
 
After finishing "Between The World And Me", another provocative quote by exisentialist Friedrich Nietzsche came to my attention. "To live is to suffer. To survive is to find some meaning in suffering."
 
As Arsensio Hall, another great philosophical thinker, would say: "Things that make you go hummm."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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