The Numbers Add Up To This: Less And Less Opportunity For Poor Kids
In this country, all children are supposed to have a shot at success — a chance to jump "from rags to riches" in one generation.
Even if riches remain out of reach, then the belief has been that every hard-working American should be able to go from poverty to the middle class.
On Tuesday, a book and a separate study are being released — both turning up evidence that the one-generation leap is getting harder to accomplish in an economy so tied to education, technological know-how and networking.
Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam's new book,Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, argues that the United States is losing its status as a land of opportunity for all.
Here's the central idea: In the American Dream, upward mobility is available to all, limited only by ability and effort, not class. But Putnam assembles data to show that an "opportunity gap" has emerged here, making an upward climb much tougher in the 21st century, compared with the mid-20th century.
Putnam says a child born to married, college-educated parents has a very good chance of enjoying a comfortable life, rooted in formal education and personal connections; a child raised by a lightly educated single parent is starting the economic race wearing concrete shoes. The chances of catching up to the middle class are slim.
A separate study published Tuesday by the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire uses state-by-state data to underscore the problems. A look through the state slides shows a shifting landscape of opportunities for young people.
The study, which used data stretching back to 1960, shows that the most affluent 20 percent of families have seen their incomes (adjusted for inflation) rise steadily at a high pitch. People who were doing well in the 1960s have watched their children and now grandchildren move up in wealth.
From 1960 to 1970, income was moving up for the poor and middle-income earners as The Numbers Add Up To This: Less And Less Opportunity For Poor Kids : NPR: