> "my family grew up poor and I figured it out! My dad came to this country with five dollars in his pocket etc etc."
People also drastically underestimate the negative changes in social mobility since 1980. You mentioned one with housing but access to good education is another aspect.
I know the situation in France more than the US but at least in France, there used to be a lot more upward mobility. I went to a very well ranked engineering school that was created in the 60s with the goal of giving access to higher education to everyone. When they opened, 30% of students had parents who were farmer or factory workers (65% of the population had those type of jobs back then). By 2005, 7% of students had those kind of background (compared 39% of the population did those kind of jobs). I was in the school administration concil back then and this was already seen as a big problem. I know for a fact that the students coming from less advantageous background has been further reduced.
It's a generalized trend, increasingly all the best schools mostly admit from a small selection of students that come from a select number of good schools.
There's a lot of factors that changed and, surprisingly, evolution of upward mobility is poorly studied. My mother always thought that she succeeded because she went to boarding school in middle school and high school. Back then it was normal for people living far in the countryside like her. She thinks that boarding school allowed her to get a rest from her stressful and toxic home environment. Thanks to it she was able to read, study in peace and able to succeed. She later became a teacher and she was saddened by some of the kids she saw that grew up in an adverse environment with no real way out.
> The psychological burden of a hopeless situation is enormous.
Fully agreed on the psychological burden of a hopeless situation. When you are perpetually stressed about money, it's hard to gather the required energy to do anything besides surviving.
People also drastically underestimate the negative changes in social mobility since 1980. You mentioned one with housing but access to good education is another aspect.
I know the situation in France more than the US but at least in France, there used to be a lot more upward mobility. I went to a very well ranked engineering school that was created in the 60s with the goal of giving access to higher education to everyone. When they opened, 30% of students had parents who were farmer or factory workers (65% of the population had those type of jobs back then). By 2005, 7% of students had those kind of background (compared 39% of the population did those kind of jobs). I was in the school administration concil back then and this was already seen as a big problem. I know for a fact that the students coming from less advantageous background has been further reduced.
It's a generalized trend, increasingly all the best schools mostly admit from a small selection of students that come from a select number of good schools.
There's a lot of factors that changed and, surprisingly, evolution of upward mobility is poorly studied. My mother always thought that she succeeded because she went to boarding school in middle school and high school. Back then it was normal for people living far in the countryside like her. She thinks that boarding school allowed her to get a rest from her stressful and toxic home environment. Thanks to it she was able to read, study in peace and able to succeed. She later became a teacher and she was saddened by some of the kids she saw that grew up in an adverse environment with no real way out.
> The psychological burden of a hopeless situation is enormous.
Fully agreed on the psychological burden of a hopeless situation. When you are perpetually stressed about money, it's hard to gather the required energy to do anything besides surviving.