The quotation is from Plutarch’s Lives. According to the article,
“Fifteen years ago, the American Dream was alive and well for white children born to low-income parents in much of the North-east and West Coast,” says Benjamin Goldman of Cornell University, one of the co-authors. “Now those areas have outcomes on par with Appalachia, the rustbelt and parts of the South-east.”
This in particular makes it seem that race is a major determinant, as much as location, but I am writing from the perspective of a white person.
Dumpster diving in Second Life: Closer to First Life reality
Note that white people remain the majority of the population, at between 61.6% and 70% of the U.S. population as of 2023, according to the U.S. Census. In other words, the majority of Americans are increasingly experiencing downward mobility, with a few demographic exceptions. The study was longitudinal, with a vast sample size.
“…white children have become more likely to remain in poverty than before, whereas for black children the reverse is true… The finding comes from tracing the trajectories of 57 million children born in America between 1978 and 1992 and looking at their outcomes by the age of 27.
“This is really the first look with modern big data into how opportunity can change within a place over time,” says Mr Goldman. For children born into high-income families, household income increased for all races between birth cohorts. Yet among those from low-income families, earnings rose for black children and fell for white children.”
Class not race
There are numerous findings of interest, not the least of which is that class seems to (overall) be a greater determinant of well-being than race.
“…the earnings gap between rich and poor white children (the “class gap”) grew by 27%, whereas the earnings gap between poor white and poor black children (the “race gap”) fell by 28% …
Yet the decline of the white working class is steep, and bound to cause grief. Telling a young white man with lower life outcomes than previous generations that he is still doing better than the average black peer is about as useful as telling a young black man that he’s doing well “for a black man”.
This is followed by a statement that upward mobility is not a zero-sum game, which rings hollow to me. We are constantly informed that resources are finite. That is the dominant narrative. If so, social mobility is indeed a zero-sum game.
Finally, there is the conclusion, summarizing the ‘rags-to-riches’ tale of J.D. Vance, and that such biographies are rare, and will be increasingly so. That does ring true to me. All the more important to consider the quote from Plutarch’s Lives, very seriously.
Ellie Asks Why 