"The American Dream" is just a myth we tell ourselves

[Silver]

The U.S. has far worse social mobility than other developed countries.

According to World Economic Forum, a new study revealed that social mobility is more correlated to the occupation of a person’s parents rather than their effort. The study was authored by Michael Hout, a professor of sociology at New York University.

“A lot of Americans think the US has more social mobility than other western industrialized countries. This makes it abundantly clear that we have less.”

Previously, research used occupation metrics to measure social status across generations by relying on averages. This phenomenon, also called “intergenerational persistence,” is the degree to which one generation’s success depends on the resources of the preceding generation. These studies found strong associations between a parent’s occupation and intergenerational persistence, but they understated the significance that a parent’s job can have on their child’s status.

The study’s findings, which appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, find that children of high-status parents have more advantages in the labor force than earlier estimates suggested. This is due to the study tracking medians instead of averages for a clearer outcome. The findings are based on General Social Survey data from 1994 through 2016.

GSS interviewers asked for detailed descriptions of the respondent’s occupation, their father’s occupation, and their mother’s occupation. Answers were then categorized into a socioeconomic score ranging from 9 (shoe shiner), to 53 (flight attendant) to 93 (surgeon). Half the sons and daughters whose parents had top tier occupations now work in occupations that score 76 or higher on the 100 point scale. Half of the children of parents who had jobs in the bottom tier now have jobs that score 28 or less on the same scale.

“Your circumstances at birth—specifically, what your parents do for a living—are an even bigger factor in how far you get in life than we had previously realized,” observes Hout. “Generations of Americans considered the United States to be a land of opportunity. This research raises some sobering questions about that image.

https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectu...content=SP

[The Grand Nudger]

You mean we're not going to Horatio our way up and out the ghetto after all.........?

[Succubus]

The US will never recover. Not while ~60% of its populace believe every word of a 2000 year old book of ripping yarns.
Sixty years ago Kennedy put men on the moon but the detestable bastard now in the Whitehouse couldn't tell you what the moon is made of or how it got there.
And what's most scary is it's not his fault, he's the moron Louis Mencken warned you about and placed into power by the morons every other fucker has been warning you about, the religious right. Trump is the inevitable consequence of what happens when a great power is infiltrated by those determined to make said power a theocracy: kavanaugh, Pence, et,al.
And it's too late to fix, there's not a fucking thing you can do about it.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."

Who said the yanks don't do irony.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"The accounts of my demise are exaggerated."

[Gwaithmir]

I can't honestly say that I knew exactly what the "American Dream" was supposed to be. I set certain goals for myself early in life and, by a lot of hard work and good fortune, achieved most of them.

[Aoi Magi]

It's the american DREAM not the american reality

[Gawdzilla Sama]

People all over the world have had visions for their countries. Some dreamed of lebensraum. Some dreamed that the sun would never set on their territories. Others dreamed that the world could be united under their leadership and the rule of the proletariat would finally be realized.

[chimp3]

It's true the American Dream is transmitted to us by our parents work habits. Mom and Dad teach us to study hard, practice good sportsmanship, defer gratuitous pleasures and learn self discipline. Then when the time comes, they slip a suitcase full of money to the Ivy League University admissions coordinator. "You should see my boy row that boat!" Wink, wink.

[Brian37]

The US will never recover. Not while ~60% of its populace believe every word of a 2000 year old book of ripping yarns.
Sixty years ago Kennedy put men on the moon but the detestable bastard now in the Whitehouse couldn't tell you what the moon is made of or how it got there.
And what's most scary is it's not his fault, he's the moron Louis Mencken warned you about and placed into power by the morons every other fucker has been warning you about, the religious right. Trump is the inevitable consequence of what happens when a great power is infiltrated by those determined to make said power a theocracy: kavanaugh, Pence, et,al.
And it's too late to fix, there's not a fucking thing you can do about it.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."

Who said the yanks don't do irony.

While Trump worries me, it isn't so much him alone, but the tone he can set long term. The more politicians who take his scapegoating white nationalist tone, the worse off we will become. But 2018 was a rebuke of that, and the good part is he isn't appealing to swing voters like in 2020 to the same degree. 

I worry more for the entire planet because of global warming.

[brewer]

This feels quite defeatist. Glad I didn't hear this when younger. I might not have put myself thru grad school. Or made a comeback after two dances with addiction.