Hello everyone,
I was on some social media site and came across this article. I know it is not inside higher ed but it did strike my interest as it talked about upward mobility perceptions amongst people and how often people both believe way more in how much it is possible for people to get out of poverty with social mobility and possibly downplaying the income inequalities of class as a result. The author points to a study by two professors from University of Illinois Michael Kraus as the main professor. I believe the study points to explaining that people are so ingrained in their belief that just because something is possible for them or they know that "one guy" who made it from all the way from the bottom of the income class to the top 20% of income of people that it almost blinds them to the truth in that there is a system of monopoly dominance in our culture. The top 1% controls over about half of our world's wealth. We have been cultured to believe in hard work producing more results in mobility but the study only points to the fact that hard work doesn't necessarily suggest mobility at all. I was reading a Forbes article that said the top 85 richest people own more as much as 65 times half of the poorest people in the world - 3.5 billion people.
http://www.citylab.com/work/2015/02/americans-think-upward-mobility-is-far-more-common-than-it-really-is/385086/
Sincerely,
Dean Choi
ReplyDeleteHi Dean,
Thank you for bringing this topic to our discussion. I agree that people are easily blinded by the notion that they will be able to became rich and famous. After all, the United States perpetuates the notion of equal opportunity and not equal outcome, and this is often misconstrued. I wanted to share the article below from the Washington Post that demonstrates the inequality between students who are wealthy that come easily into success and money compared to students who must work harder to make progressions in social class and education. This coincides with Strohl's statement that students who achieve lower standardized test scores graduate at higher rates from selective four year institutions than students with high test scores that attend open enrollment two or four year colleges, (Figure 11). What particularly concerns me is the work ethic that is being developed amongst these students who are so easily accessing wealth and power partially due to their high access to social capital. I won't deny that there are brilliant individuals that worked extremely hard to gain upward mobility and become rich and successful, however, this fantasy that you mentioned that anyone can achieve this success creates a false sense of entitlement. In addition, too many people who are on pathways that lead to success due to their parent's education or their social class may not be developing the necessary interpersonal skills and resiliency it should take to be the top earners in society.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/18/poor-kids-who-do-everything-right-dont-do-better-than-rich-kids-who-do-everything-wrong/