Even poor kids who do everything right dont do much better than rich kids who do everything wrong. Advantages and disadvantages, in other words, tend to perpetuate themselves. You can see that in the above chart, based on a new paper from Richard Reeves and Isabel Sawhill, presented at the Federal Reserve Bank of Bostons annual conference, which is underway. Specifically, rich high school dropouts remain in the top about as much as poor college grads stay stuck in the bottom — 14 versus 16 percent, respectively. Not only that, but these low-income strivers are just as likely to end up in the bottom as these wealthy neer-do-wells. Some meritocracy. Whats going on? Well, its all about glass floors and glass ceilings. Rich kids who can go work for the family business — and, in Canada at least, 70 percent of the sons of the top 1 percent do just that — or inherit the family estate dont need a high school diploma to get ahead. Its an extreme example of what economists call opportunity hoarding. That includes everything from legacy college admissions to unpaid internships that let affluent parents rig the game a little more in their childrens favor. washingtonpost/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/18/poor-kids-who-do-everything-right-dont-do-better-than-rich-kids-who-do-everything-wrong/?tid=HP_more
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 16:22:51 +0000
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