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Land of Unequal Opportunity

Equal opportunity means that every American has a chance to succeed. It’s not a guarantee - just a chance. But our economic system is creating nothing but unequal opportunities. These unequal opportunities will only serve to create a caste system where economic mobility is not possible.

Education can be the determining factor when it comes to opportunities. Let me share two very real stories that are examples of unequal opportunities and then recite some disturbing statistics.

First, the following real story is very typical for working class families today. My niece is getting ready to graduate from high school and is considering college. She comes from the average working class family - her father is a retired truck driver and her mother is a school administrative assistant. Their family income, while average, is probably too high to qualify for most financial aid programs. My niece has been considering state universities - no private or Ivy League schools. Her parents are currently experiencing ‘sticker shock’ and, although they haven’t shared this with me, are probably panicking over how to help my niece pay for college. The cost of ONE year of college at a state university: $30,000. My guess (since I don’t know their family income) is that college cost is over 25% of the family’s annual income.

How can children of working class families afford college today? Sure, some will say well they can go to work (typically full-time) and go to school. But that’s not an equal opportunity because the child of wealthier family doesn’t have to work and go to school.

Second, real story comes from Detroit, Michigan. Let me preface this story: with almost 16 million children living in poverty that’s an incredible amount of unequal opportunities being created.  Then there is this: Michigan approves plan to close half of Detroit schools. The Detroit school system may be small compared to other big cities with only 87,000 students but closing half of the schools means 60 to 1 student/teacher ratios. This means that even an average student will be severely penalized simply because where he/she lives. In other low income areas both rural and urban the story is very similar - not enough funding and/or proper tools or facilities to teach kids. This only compounds the fact that being born into poverty already creates unequal opportunities.

We have become the Land of Unequal Opportunities:

• Only 35% of children in a family in the bottom fifth of the income scale will achieve middle-class status or better by the time they are adults; in contrast, 76% of children from the top fifth will be middle-class or higher as adults. This means if you are born poor you are likely to stay poor.
• Today, men in their 30s earn 12% less than the previous generation did at the same age.
• Almost 30% of children now live in single-parent families, up from 12% in 1968. Since poverty rates in single-parent households are roughly five times as high as in two-parent households, this shift has helped keep the poverty rate up
• Adult children are more likely to surpass their parents’ income in absolute terms if they have a college degree and more likely to reach the top income quintile if they have a college degree.

We like to think of U.S. as the Land of Opportunity. Can we really say that anymore? Regarding poverty some may blame the previous welfare state. Yes, there were problems with it but that doesn’t mean we eliminate it entirely. Regarding education some may argue that higher education is a privilege and not a right. I would ask those people are they comfortable with a caste system.

There are solutions to this problem of unequal opportunity. We must first have the courage to confront these issues and then have the will to do something about it. Or we can simply ignore it and continue to suffer the consequences and there will be consequences to this unequal opportunity. One of them being even higher income inequality. The choice is really ours to make - do something or ignore it.

Good luck.