Writer Glennie Burks defines the major societal problem, why so few are rising above the status of poverty, in today’s January 18, 2014 Dallas Morning News Opinion Column. It, also, compliments today’s post at https://twitter.com/LawofAbundance. Both postings deal with the problem of an inherent mindset that needs to be changed.
This month’s BCS national championship game between Florida State and Auburn renewed my hope in upward mobility for anyone who is hardworking and committed. Auburn University went from the worst team in the Southeastern Conference to the top and represented the SEC in the national championship game. Despite losing the game, this group of young men provided their followers many life lessons. Those lessons this season were perseverance, hard work and dedication.
If you watched the game, you know these attributes have the power to launch anyone from the bottom to the top. Yet, a Pew survey discovered that younger Americans (18-34) are more likely than older Americans (35-54) to credit attaining wealth to family inheritance and connections. Meanwhile, older Americans attribute wealth attainment to hard work, education and ambition.
While there is some indication that upward mobility in the U.S may be determined by family background, what does the Pew survey say about what we are teaching our kids about the value of a strong work ethic? We know that most people born poor in the U.S. are likely to be poor. Similarly, children born to wealthy families grow up to be wealthy adults. The assumption is that children in most cases climb the social economic ladder on the same trajectory as their parents.
Recently, we’ve talked a lot about the 50-year War on Poverty. This policy, initiated by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, was designed to mitigate the harmful effects of being poor. Before the policy’s inception, there was stifling poverty in the U.S. Many diseases, often a result of malnutrition, plagued the country. Food and medical programs established during this era have been successful. However, we’ve also seen wage stagnation, and the percentage of Americans who still receive federal assistance and the cost of these programs have grown beyond most expectations. Policymakers will continue to advocate for programs aimed at reducing poverty. But they must address the causes of poverty and not the symptoms. In fact, we can make a bad situation worse when we focus on the wrong thing.
Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation suggests that policies directed at reducing poverty have discouraged upward mobility. He maintains that these initiatives have created a class of dependency and that the children in such households are less likely to attend college, thus excluding most of them from good-paying jobs in a knowledge-based economy. In spite of all the grim data, I am hopeful because many of us do overcome numbers and statistics.
Here in Dallas, my mother-in-law, who has a high school diploma and is a vocational nurse, does not have a college degree. She and her husband raised six children, all of whom have triumphed over common stereotypes and low expectations. Each of their children has a college degree, and two have gone on to attain graduate and professional degrees. I asked her how they were able to raise six children to be overachievers. She responded, “My husband and I had rules.”
Regardless of social class or education, parents’ expectation of their child’s success may be the one metric that most of the surveys on U.S. upward mobility lack. I realize some funding is essential to many critical areas when we address the upward mobility gap, but a good start is right at home with setting real expectations and rules.
