Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
In my Social Work career I spent 37 years working primarily with people in poverty, whether from Race, ethnicity, economic situations, criminal history and/or addiction. In my Psychotherapy practice (part time) my patients were middle to upper class economically and yet as the years have passed my memory of them has faded. Still remaining though, burned into my memory, are the lives of those I met who lived in poverty. We see in this current Presidential election a sharp contrast between the philosophies of the two candidates. One believing in lowering peoples expectations for and the receipt of, what he deems “entitlements”. The other who defends what he calls self-funded programs and championing the Federal Government’s intervention to make health care more accessible. There is, however, one economic/social area where both candidates fully agree and this agreement represents exactly what is wrong with our country.
Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, by their words and deeds, both believe fervently in the notion of the “American Dream”. If we look at the history of their lives we can understand how from their perspective, their lives have typified the “America Dream”. Romney was born wealthy, went to the best schools and came from a family that was highly prominent in his community. Obama, though born the child of an unwed mother, had the benefit of her intelligence, in addition to Maternal Grandparents who were relatively well to do. Their lives, though having different arcs, led them both to the point where they are competing for the highest office in the land. Neither man is lying when they extol America as the world’s shining light of opportunity for all, because their own lives bear that out. To me the problem is that reality shows that they are wrong in their belief and in their clinging to the myth of the “American Dream”, they ignore the most important issue of our time, American inequality of opportunity.
This week I read an article by Prof. James Karabel, of the UC Berkeley. Its title was: Grand Illusion: Mobility, Equality and the American Dream. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerome-karabel/grand-illusion-mobility-inequality-and-the-american-dream_b_1933238.html I believe my many years working both on the front lines of poverty and as an executive in most areas of Social Services I qualify too as an expert on poverty and its scarring effect on people. Then too in my experiences as a psychotherapist I’ve learned something about the human psyche and how it can be negatively affected. So in my own mind at least I believe that I am enough of an expert to state categorically that the professor knows what he is talking about and that I completely agree with him. Professor Karabel writes:
“[T]his cherished view of America is now a myth. The reality is in fact quite the opposite: Family origins matter more in the United States in determining where one ends up in life compared to other wealthy democratic countries. This is a recent development. Studies of social mobility as far back as the 1950s and 1960s showed that rates of movement in the United States were generally comparable to other developed countries. This finding itself challenged the longstanding image of America as exceptionally open, but it is a far cry from today, when the United States rates at or near the bottom in comparative studies of social mobility.
To take just two examples, a study by Jo Blanden and colleagues at the London School of Economics found that a father’s income was a better predictor of a son’s income in the United States than in seven other countries, including Germany, Canada, and the United Kingdom. And a review article by Miles Corak at the University of Ottawa, based on 50 studies of nine countries, found the United States tied with the United Kingdom as having the least social mobility, trailing not only Norway and Denmark but France, Germany, and Canada.”
There are many studies that back Professor Karabel’s thesis. One such from the moderate Pew Research Center states the following in its summary of findings regarding the vitality of the “American Dream”. http://www.pewstates.org/research/reports/pursuing-the-american-dream-85899403228
“ Those born at the top and bottom of the income ladder are likely to stay there as adults. More than 40 percent of Americans raised in the bottom quintile of the family income ladder remain stuck there as adults, and 70 percent remain below the middle.
African Americans are more likely to be stuck at the bottom and fall from the middle of the economic ladder across a generation.
The renowned Brookings Institution, which is economically “Centrist” also, did a study on upward mobility in America, which was intertwined with how the reality affected the “American Dream” meme. In it they examined all sources including the Pew Report cited above. Among the Brookings conclusions were:
“What is clear is that in at least one regard American mobility is exceptional: not in terms of downward mobility from the middle or from the top, and not in terms of upward mobility from the middle — rather, where we stand out is in our limited upward mobility from the bottom. And in particular, it’s American men who fare worse than their counterparts in other countries.[16] One study compared the United States with Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom. It found that in each country, whether looking at sons or at daughters, 23 to 30 percent of children whose fathers were in the bottom fifth of earnings remained in the bottom fifth themselves as adults — except in the United States, where 42 percent of sons remained there.” http://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2011/11/09-economic-mobility-winship
A New York Times article in January 2012 by Jason DeParle titled: “Harder for Americans to Rise from Lower Rungs” examined the research available and also noted that even many o the Right, like Rick Santorum, were beginning to express concern for this American decline of “Upward Mobility”:
“Benjamin Franklin did it. Henry Ford did it. And American life is built on the faith that others can do it, too: rise from humble origins to economic heights. “Movin’ on up,” George Jefferson-style, is not only a sitcom song but a civil religion. But many researchers have reached a conclusion that turns conventional wisdom on its head: Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe. The mobility gap has been widely discussed in academic circles, but a sour season of mass unemployment and street protests has moved the discussion toward center stage.”
“One reason for the mobility gap may be the depth of American poverty, which leaves poor children starting especially far behind. Another may be the unusually large premiums that American employers pay for college degrees. Since children generally follow their parents’ educational trajectory, that premium increases the importance of family background and stymies people with less schooling.
At least five large studies in recent years have found the United States to be less mobile than comparable nations. A project led by Markus Jantti, an economist at a Swedish university, found that 42 percent of American men raised in the bottom fifth of incomes stay there as adults. That shows a level of persistent disadvantage much higher than in Denmark (25 percent) and Britain (30 percent) — a country famous for its class constraints. Meanwhile, just 8 percent of American men at the bottom rose to the top fifth. That compares with 12 percent of the British and 14 percent of the Danes.” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/us/harder-for-americans-to-rise-from-lower-rungs.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
At the end of this piece I’ll offer more proof and studies on the desperate state of the “American Dream”, but I think what I’ve presented so far makes the case that the “American Dream” has become more myth than reality. Now I’d like to examine what I think about all of this and why it is mostly absent from the discussions of the issues in this coming election.
Thinking about the breadth of American History and the fact that it is intertwined with racial, ethnic and economic strife throughout, it is amazing that this country, made up of so many ethnicities and races, has been as stable as it has been when compared to other industrialized nations. I contend that this is because a vast majority of the population has bought into the myth of the “American Dream”. This myth where every child can grow up to be famous, rich and President has lowered the discontent of those born on, or near the bottom and filled them with the demonstrably false presence that rising from a lower caste social state can be done only if they try harder. While on the anecdotal level this is true in that many instances can be found of the “rags to riches” story, on the statistical level the truth is that it is a very rare occurrence. As the studies show if you are born at, or near the bottom you tend to remain there.
When “rags to riches” stories occur it is simply because a given individual has been born with superior abilities and/or has had extraordinary luck. As I have mentioned many times on the Turley blog, the Horatio Alger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatio_Alger,_Jr. the 19th Century novelist, provided much propaganda for the concept of the “American Dream”, during America’s “Gilded Age” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gilded_Age , the great industrial and economic spurt that followed the Civil War and lasted until the end of the 19th Century. Alger’s books contained one overarching theme: The poor boy that with hard work and “pluck” rose from abject poverty to enormous wealth. The fallacy was that in every one of his many novels, the “poor boy” was taken in hand by a wealthy gentleman, who helped his rise and even offered his daughter’s hand in marriage. Nevertheless, to a population made up of the rural poor moving from farms to factory work and of immigrants freeing the chains of European and Asian autocracy, these books had a tremendous influence on their aspirations.
We must understand that after the Civil War killed 600,000 and maimed so many more there were plenty of jobs available during this country’s rise into the Industrial Revolution. Also comparatively at that time the living conditions for most in other countries were characterized by rigid class systems and oppressive governance enforcing the class distinctions. As the 19th Century drew to a close the “American Dream” became entwined in the fabric of American mythology and simultaneously fostered the concept of “American Exceptionalism” that was the main foreign policy feature of “Progressivism”
At this point the “Right” and the “Left” of this country established their main point of agreement, which has lasted until this day. Both sides of the political spectrum accepted the idea that America was a shining land of opportunity for all and exceptional in its system. By both sides of course I’m talking about almost all of the politicians in both parties, in the two party system, which became rigid after Teddy Roosevelt’s “Bull Moose Party” run in 1908. This is ot to say that there weren’t many dissidents to the “American Dream” meme, but those dissidents were marginalized in the discussion by the press and the developing media.
So here we are today with evidence that the “American Dream” is in shambles and yet the Presidential Candidates and the majority of people supporting both parties still mouth the myth of America as the land of the greatest opportunity for all. This is destructive, not only because it isn’t rue, but because it prevents any real discussion of the problems we face in this country if we are to begin to return to its purported ideals of opportunity for all. How many of you reading this can say that your own lives were not touched by privilege of some sort? The “American Dream” is in my opinion a chimerical myth, with little substance behind it. Rising from importune circumstance though has always been the lot of humanity, though in our distant past it did depend initially on brawn and/or brains. What we are seeing in America today is the diminution of opportunity and the collapse of our once robust middle class. That as a nation we are so inculcated with this myths that even if a politician had the temerity to tell the truth about the eroding “American Dream” she/he would find their career buried under opprobrium.
I write this because of my anger at the continuing failure of this country to address the real problems endemic in preventing our society from being one of relatively equal opportunity for all. “All men are created equal” has never meant that there aren’t some among us who have greater ability than others. To me it has always meant that most people should at least have a fairly equal chance to achieve their aspirations dependent on their innate abilities. Is that too much to ask?
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
NOTE: The picture used up front is of Horatio Alger, Jr. Those who have read my writing here will see that this is a continuing concern of mine and consists of much of what I have written. I would also recommend Gene Howington’s Propaganda series as providing a view of how this issue continues to be hidden from our political debate. Some links backing my premise:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/17/social-immobility-climbin_n_501788.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-steven-friedman/class-mobility_b_1676931.html
http://www.npr.org/2012/05/29/153918852/on-the-economic-ladder-rungs-move-further-apart
http://jonathanturley.org/?s=Gene+Howington
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/09/30/portents-of-the-new-feudalism/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/09/29/the-nfl-and-whats-wrong-with-america/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/07/07/mythology-and-the-new-feudalism/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/03/10/what-motivates-the-1/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/01/07/americas-transcendent-issue/
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/12/18/forget-wall-street-occupy-corporate-boardrooms/
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/08/20/jobless-in-georgia/
Pertinent citation from Chomsky’s address to a conference in 2008 celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first book edition.
“In 2008, Chomsky replied to questions concerning the ways internet blogs and self-generated news reportage conform to and differ from the propaganda model. He also explained how access to information is not enough, because a framework of understanding is required.[10]”
“If you approve I have some others, each quite practically connected to the world today, myth banners simply.
Like Hans Rosling who shows that EDUCATION is most important of all to “underdeveloped” countries, as health rises with it and number of kids per family falls greatly. As you say, for us too.
He went for his post-docs to India, where he found that his fellow students could do the text 5 times better than he could. He, being in the top 5% of his doc class in the top school in Sweden, was surprised.
He is a researcher in public health systems who has developed a way of graphing stats live, and cued by him, that together with his way of talking has fascinated people around the world. He takes stats from national health sources and makes them sing. Loudly.
—————–
And Daniel Ellsberg who was not a traitor, but a patriot when he revealed the lies the Pentagon had concealed since 1946 after WWTWO about Indochina and the Vietnam war. He fielded the “cables” coming into the deputy Defense Sec while the Tonkin incident was going on. Twelve hours he stood there.
Prior he was a marine officer, risen to battalion op officer, reaponsible for planning the eventual operations from their ship off the shores of North Africa. He briefed Kennedy on his own first tour as a Pentagoner in ’52. He returned attached to a “hearts and minds” program later and spent paddy time with our boys with a CIA weapon in his arms. Something nobody else did, just to be sure of what was what. He came home when he caught jaundice. Read more in his book “Secrets”.
“3) Noam Chomsky has an article on “Why Main Stream Media is Main Stream.” Also revealing his views on society as a whole, and academia.
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710–.htm
4) Why and how we are lead by the noses even today, it all started after WWONE, but it is not heavy, just a book review in wikipedia. An eyeopener and appetizer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent:_The_Political_Economy_of_the_Mass_Media
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NB only two links per comment:
85 idealist707
1, October 12, 2012 at 5:27 pm
Well, I wrote you a short, for me, answer and dropped it somewhere these things disappear into.
Now no promotion at all.
Try these:
1) MikeS. a book review.
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/01/21/the-authoritarians-a-book-review-and-book/
2) Where you can download the book reviewed by MikeS.
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
To start the chatline, I will attempt to answer my own question, which was meaty indeed.
If I had to answer it in one word it would be…education. It amazes me how watered down this has become in this country, even though its price has skyrocketed (another meaty issue in and of itself). I will be paying my student loans down until I am 45 if I am lucky, and if not, until I am 55. I digress. An uneducated electorate is dangerously exploited by those in power. The second term of George W. and his cronies comes to mind.
The sad thing is that I think the majority of Americans are dumbing down and a faster and faster rate, when the irony is, with the world wide web, it is easier than ever to educate yourself, learn, or call someone out on their BS.
That brings to mind the recent debates. Countless times we heard each tell the other they were wrong on a certain point. Can’t we find out who was right? Just last night we heard each candidate blurt out studies supporting there budgets. They can’t all be right. Gives meaning to a saying I once heard from an old professor of mine … “There’s lies, there’s damn lies, and there is statistics.”
Where has “journalism” gone in this country? They use to be part of the stop gap for the BS but seem no longer. It seems that the masses simply accept that both candidates and their parties are full of sh*t. Most are turned off by it and don’t participate. Another major hurdle in the American Dream finish line.
But I do think the definition must be changed from “making it big” to simply “living comfortably.” To some, the meaning may be synonymous.
I am done rambling for now. I welcome all comments/thoughts/criticisms, etc., and will put my thick skin suit on just in case I get a prickly respone.
Dredd,
It is only natural. The small frogs decide their calling order. Then they negotiate with the neighboring pond, snd then a stronger one or a falange emerges which lays several ponds under their control, etc etc.
And here we stand the United Frogs of America, ehh? and say how wonderful the cacophony is.
It is only natural which in some minds means good.
And the top frogs say “Grumppp”, and the small frogs agree and get another portion of mosquitos.
So what was the point. Not much other than we are overgrown frogs. The analogy was not good, but it tried.
“Do unto others….first.” I’ll remember that.
Let’s also add: “and constantly.”
MikeS,
I hope that I will always have the courage, which I feel I have, to name alligators if they swim in JT’s waters. You were not the alligator that I was talking about. You do say openly, often softly packaged, what you want to say. But you don’t take off legs.
Taking off legs is what happens IRL. A superfluous warning perhaps to Juris about RL.
And another reason I come back is to express my appreciation for the two blogs you mentioned and linked to. I ran around a long time touting Prof Altemeyer’s book, saying to contacts: “read only 40 pages, only 25 pages and you will understand people better than a PhD in psychology.”
The “last 62 years” was an equally big shocker.
I could not share those times in Amerca with you there.
But it seemed like one of the extremely clear-eyed views of reality which are rarely seen. Showing that there was in fact a red thread running through it all.
So learning that there were so few comments was surprising—my hyperbole being the understatement “surprising”.
Am glad to be reminded of both blogs. For personal reasons.
Let me end with a brag. I suddenly got the insight that the corporations were the occupying army, and the one percent were their generals. We were and are the colony. So where is their country, their loyalty, their ethic. I compare each multi-millionaire like Siegel or Koch or Romney to the feudal king who is dependent on the production of a hundred thousand households to be content. Do they care? They only want us to keep producing, quietly. And my interpretation of GeneH’s blog on “acts utilitarianism”. The sufferings of serfs weigh nothing, the benefits they produce for the king are enormously weighty.
And in his conversation at his club with his buddies, he will at times say: “Hey guys, didja see? Serfs up!
Time to raise the take out.”
“I suddenly got the insight that the corporations were the occupying army, and the one percent were their generals. We were and are the colony. So where is their country, their loyalty, their ethic.”
ID707,
You and I are both old enough to remember the 60’s and the privileged classes being referred to as “The Jet Set”. Then later on in the 70’s formerly American companies began to identify themselves as “multinationals”. Their country is the entire world, their loyalty (such as it is) is to their class and their ethic is “Do unto others……first”.
Thank you for your complements on those two particular blogs of which I’m proud.
idealist707 1, October 8, 2012 at 6:05 pm
Dredd,
Do you think this blog thread, Amerian dream vs reality, died because it is too depressing, too obviously true or ????
========================================
I don’t know … it has a lot of comments.
It is as you say depressing what the plutocrats are doing, behaving like sociopaths or psychopaths, but talking it out can help.
As it stands now we really can’t vote our way out of it, but if we keep talking more and more ideas will hopefully show up.
“So, your article begs the question – what can we do to bring back the American Dream? The problem, like so many others facing us today, is so complex – globalization, corporatism, lack of citizen interest and engagement in the political system, to name a few.”
Juris,
That’s a broad, meaty question, that some day I might do a blog on. Let me give you the short answer for now, since I got some other personal stuff to take care of.
To bring back the “American Dream” we need to destroy the meme that it is real. By most Americans believing that they too can “make it big”, they tend to sympathize with those who’ve made it and therefore support those who are not acting in self interest of all the people. People need to realize how much we have declined as a society, with ever more limited mobility between the economic classes. If more than a majority come to realize this fact, then we have taken the first step towards taking back our country. This first step is exceedingly hard because the means of communication are mainly controlled by those who would continue this trend, which is specifically to turn this country back into a state of feudalism.
PS that was since 3 years of age, not 3 years ago.
Juris,
As much as your 24/7 allow in the next few days, let’s regerd this as a chat line. Your choice.
I’m not looking for blab time but want to use you as a resource tapping what your generations take and views are.
Simple proposition. I’ll check in to see. If nothing comes no bad feelings.
I have no wisdom, not even from the most recent mistakes I make today. However the years and the distance to the forest makes its outline clearer.
Your 24/7 is overfilled. Be glad, Ask MikeS about empty days, as he has grandchildren and I don’t.
Meanwhile, I admired your defense and courage in offering an opposing position to one of our chief guest bloggers here. May you go long with it. But alligators will take off your leg. I was lucky. Not smart.
PS Since 3 years I have been defending myself with hurtful words. Laying it aside is difficult. Like a cactus, I am prickly all over.
As to your last question, I defer to MikeS. Better overview and bettter spoken.
“I admired your defense and courage in offering an opposing position to one of our chief guest bloggers here. May you go long with it. But alligators will take off your leg.”
ID707,
I do get prickly at times, but never because someone would civilly express a different opinion from mine. Juris well stated his viewpoint and there are some things with which I agree as I stated.
Mike S.,
Point taken. And yes, I have a lot to learn from you and others here. That is why I am here. You and ID 707 have more of something than I do, which only comes with time… wisdom. You also are well more rehearsed in history, which, unfortunately for me, I did not take an interest in until a few years ago. I have a lot of catching up to do with so little time.
I am surprised, however, that 30% of those do make it into the middle class. I thought the number would have been much lower.
So, your article begs the question – what can we do to bring back the American Dream? The problem, like so many others facing us today, is so complex – globalization, corporatism, lack of citizen interest and engagement in the political system, to name a few. Another, I believe, which I would appreciate your and ID 707s input on, is that not as many of our elected leaders, especially on the federal level, actually look out for our country’s long term best interest as much as their predecessors.
ID 707, as you are aware, words are such an imperfect way of communication, especially without being able to tell one’s body language and tone of voice. No worries and thank you for the credit. I only wish I had more time to converse about things with you, Mike S and others. Unfortunately, I am at a time in my life in which it feels like the 24 hour day is 12. Not enough time in the day. I hear it only gets faster as the years go by.
If your not learning, your not living. I will listen for your drum beat in the future, and will have to make time to do so. Every now and again, I tend to like the beat. Good luck.
MikeS,
“inordinate controversy” I think your blog here should have been sufficient. Instead we are today discussing the electoral college. Perhaps your mountain is too high. No one dares discuss how to scale it.
“We will go to the moon”, said Kennedy. And he said so many other good ones. One was cited herethe other day, but have forgotten it. On your subject I believe. He knew where the power lay, and tried to change it. Even using words.
Amazing.
When did we hear such words since? Unfortuantely, no one was listening, except the ones planning the turkey shoot.
Mike,
“I suppose I could try to dredge up interest by finding something that would cause inordinate controversy, but if I approached my guest blogging in that manner I would be doing a disservice to Jonathan Turley and to the people who read his blog.”
Yep.
“What Makes a Good Law, What Makes a Bad Law”.
Cited7referenced 847 times according to Google.
MikeS,
A quick note on what you wrote to Juris.
Percentages are normalized figures. Great for comparison. But another question is the expansion of the “middle class”. Even that can be compared with the incomes percentage wise between countries.
How are we doing? Might be some surprises there too.
Am I wrong in guessing that ours has been creeping for some years? So which countries are expanding?
Now I could hang back and wait until later to answer, but as I was by chance passing by I might as well answer now. Ho Ho.
OK, sounds genuine and great. The whole shebang. I’ll buy it. Nothing more now of value to add.
Corrects any suspicions of JT steering or toadying to him or the folks here, or who sells the most ads.
I can’t write “straight”, so it will have to do this way.
I’ll google GeneH and will pick it up that way.
Both of your own links sound interesting.
Steering is often taken over by just who is here, apparently another factor. Can re-runs be an answer, I say facetiously. “Hey folks, pay attention this time, you—be quiet.”
Lacking anything deep to say, humor will have to do.
Your comment is impressive, as usual.
Does not cost much extra to humbly say the truth, I have found. No slicks intended.
“If I am reading this correctly (and please let me know if I am not), 30% make it above the middle? If so, I find that encouraging and quite impressive. I honestly thought it would be like 5%.”
Juris,
Many of your comments are quite reasonable and you present much that I agree with. There is a point though that I think you’re missing and regretfully it does pertain to your being born in 1980 and so not living through the history that I have being born in 1944. My point and the one made in the quoted article:
“Studies of social mobility as far back as the 1950s and 1960s showed that rates of movement in the United States were generally comparable to other developed countries. This finding itself challenged the longstanding image of America as exceptionally open, but it is a far cry from today, when the United States rates at or near the bottom in comparative studies of social mobility.”
The middle class back in the 1950’s and indeed up until the “Reagan Revolution” in 1980 was thriving in America and made up the largest part of our population. Jobs were plentiful ad we were the world leaders in manufacturing. When Reagan took power you were an infant and so you have grown up in what in essence a different reality from mine. Reagan and his backers/handlers opened the door for American manufacturing to be shipped overseas. His smashing the PATCO strike signaled the decline of Labor Unions and encouraged many Southern States, with so-called “right to work” laws to lure the remaining manufacturing to their borders through tax incentives and a docile labor market. As I quoted from the Brookings Institution:
““What is clear is that in at least one regard American mobility is exceptional: not in terms of downward mobility from the middle or from the top, and not in terms of upward mobility from the middle — rather, where we stand out is in our limited upward mobility from the bottom. And in particular, it’s American men who fare worse than their counterparts in other countries.”
So perhaps 30% of people can rise into the middle class, but this is a small number relative to other industrialized nations and it is unacceptable in terms of our past history. Things are getting worse and that is caused through artificial means rather than necessity.