
Unstacking the deck - fern12
http://www.seattlereviewofbooks.com/reviews/unstacking-the-deck/
======
jackfrodo
I think that the popular idea of inherited or generational wealth is getting a
fat 6 figure check when a grandparent dies, which doesn't really happen to
most of us. Rather, it looks like what the author describes -- a safety net
that allows upper middle class kids to do things that their peers can't
afford. As someone in the top quintile, you may not feel that much richer than
the people in the next neighborhood over, but for a lot of folks, that dad
could have said, "I'm sorry son, but I need to pay rent too." Instead, it was
more of an annoyance at his son needing a handout. But these things accumulate
over time, and this kid from a top-quintile family gets a better resume than
his neighbor who washed dishes over the summer.

~~~
ccalvert
I think the gift that some upper-middle-class kids get that others don't
always get is a belief in their ability to succeed. You also need a strong
work ethic, but I'm not sure there is such a thing as a work ethic if a person
has no faith in their ability to succeed.

Perhaps it looks a bit like this:

\- Some people you can't keep down no matter what you do. These people do
things like work full time, go to school in the evenings, and graduate from
college in four years.

\- Some people will succeed if given the opportunity to succeed. That is, if
you give them a scholarship or financial aid or if their parents pay for their
education.

\- Some people will succeed if you give them a big push. Take them to the
financial aid office and help them fill out the form, ply them with
encouraging words when they want to give up at midterms or finals, etc.

\- Some people won't succeed no matter what you do. Usually, because they have
so little faith in themselves that they give up even when success is all but
guaranteed.

So yes, government programs are needed to get enough citizens across the
finish line. But I don't think this is really about class, I think it is about
motivating people -- helping them learn to believe in themselves.

~~~
calt
Don't tell me that I just needed to believe in myself more.

My belief in my ability to succeed was briefly shattered by my dad's
employment situation. He was a well qualified engineer laid off from
manufacturing. That made us struggle.

I was always thinking about money and feeling the need to optimize for $2
meals instead of $4 meals, and wondering if my car would hold in long enough
to be able to get me to school in a week. These are things that only your
first, most motivated, category of people will overcome.

I didn't overcome these obstacles. I temporarily dropped out. Don't tell me
that I just needed to believe in myself more.

My story only has a happy ending because state schools are cheap and
engineering internships are paid.

~~~
pwinnski
I didn't read a "just" in the previous poster.

I do believe that belief or trust is a necessary but inadequate precondition
to success. Believing in yourself is not enough to help you succeed, but _not_
believing in yourself is enough to help you not succeed.

As a society, we do a very poor job giving people that trust or belief.

~~~
rectang
> As a society, we do a very poor job giving people that trust or belief.

So, do you address that with pep talks, proselytizing about "meritocracy", and
"tough love"; or by actually addressing economic insecurity through safety
nets that allow people to make a mistake or two without crashing and burning?

~~~
pwinnski
I think it's rational for people to not have trust or belief given our society
as it is. So I think we should address the root causes of economic insecurity
structurally rather than cheerleading people who have no reason to feel
secure.

Empty cheerleading gives us no-doc jumbo loans at sub-prime rates... until the
music stops and bad debts are revealed as the bad debts they are.

------
quantumofmalice
This is a decent article on a true problem, but there are two things I would
mention that add context to the situation:

Genetics do matter. Adult intelligence appears to be somewhere between 50 and
80% determined by genetics. Thus we should expect over time _in a meritocracy_
for smart kids to come from the same families. This is compounded by
assortative mating by IQ, which has become far more widespread in the last
forty years. So things are going to look nepotistic (and they always will be
to some extent, see my second point below) when, in fact, this is a natural
phenomena.

So, what? Just let the people who lose the genetic lottery rot? No. Instead,
we might want to focus on having a more balanced economy where, rather than
everyone striving to become part of the elite, a working class person can have
a perfectly reasonable life. Jordan Peterson discusses this problem in this
video:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjs2gPa5sD0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjs2gPa5sD0)

Secondly, it is not immoral for parents to make large investments in their own
children's lives. This behavior is no doubt somewhat driven by genetics
(nearly everything appears to be at least 40% genetic) but it is also a
learned behavior. Government programs that replace parental investment have
been catastrophic for minorities in the united states: for example 73% of non-
hispanic blacks are born out of wedlock. So delegating parental investment in
children to the state, in the name of ending nepotism, may have some very
detrimental effects that are difficult to predict.

All of this is to add context and suggest a different solution: making middle
class non-elite life paths more attractive, not to deny that there is a
problem.

~~~
icebraining
_assortative mating by IQ, which has become far more widespread in the last
forty years_

That's curious. Is there any explanation why? Naively, I would assume the
opposite, although I can imagine some factors that would point in that
direction.

 _for example 73% of non-hispanic blacks are born out of wedlock._

Why is that catastrophic? Is there good evidence¹ that the kids would have
been better off otherwise?

¹ (by good evidence, I'm discounting simple comparisons between children born
into and out of wedlock, since it's pretty easy to see why many confounding
variables might play into that.)

~~~
oculusthrift
women have started going to college in higher numbers than men. the vast
majority of women will only date a man who is equal or higher education level
than they are.

~~~
icebraining
That seems to be outdated information: _" For the first time in 50 years, the
educational balance among married couples has tipped towards women. Wives are
more likely to be the better educated partner than the other way around. The
trend is particularly sharp among newlyweds; in 2012 almost 40% of college
educated women were married to a guy without a degree."_

[http://time.com/7442/wives-are-now-more-educated-than-
husban...](http://time.com/7442/wives-are-now-more-educated-than-husbands/)

------
tunesmith
Articles like these make me wonder about one metric. What "percentage" do you
need to be in (top 20%, top 50%, top 1%), in the US, to be confident in having
a secure retirement? And how has _that_ changed over the decades?

Because when I see the top 20% as being described as making $112,000 or more,
I don't see that as even close to feeling confident you'll have a secure
retirement. Until _that_ improves, I have a hard time criticizing a 20%-er or
a 19%-er for having somewhat of an "every man for himself" attitude in getting
ahead.

------
calt
The author's story makes me incredibly grateful for the current situation for
developing engineers. I went to a cheap state school and had paid internships.
Also, we have a long way to go on sexism and discrimination, but there are
countless fields that are far more closed.

~~~
sudosteph
That was my path as well. Pretty much every smart, working class or middle
class student at my high school picked engineering or science routes.
Unfortunately many of the science routes led to academia, which everyone I've
talked to seems to hate from a financial perspective. Of about 5 people I know
personally, all but one has dropped out and picked up a mostly unrelated jobs
or research gig.

I went back and checked LinkedIn for some of my old HS people, and it's
interesting how different that patterns are. The children of doctors are
doctors or lawyers. Some of the really motivated children of first-generation
immigrants ended up equally successful though. Both groups tended to go to
private institutions though.

I wonder if the difference is how risk is evaluated. Middle classes see hard
sciences and engineering as reliable, accessible, career paths that minimize
risks of joblessness and allow them to leverage existing connections by
staying in state while studying (since most working and middle class folks
have a family support structure local to the area, also in-state discount)
without burdening their family more by picking a field where paid internships
are rare.

Meanwhile, richer folks are not worried about needing to work while studying,
and they don't need to stay in any one place, especially if the careers of
their parents gives them connections to in-demand places for jobs and study
(or maybe money just makes connections unnecesary).

------
rbcgerard
At the end of the day I think very few people want to actually "pay" the price
that a more equal society would entail, but are very happy to have others bear
the burdens of "paying" for a redistribution of "opportunity".

~~~
jimbokun
Education and health care.

These two items are huge economic burdens, even for those in the top %20. But
radically reducing their cost would also do wonders for improving economic
opportunities.

------
RickJWag
Raising a privileged family takes just one generation to sacrifice.

As numerous financial books will testify, if you are frugal (no matter the
income) and invest wisely, it is possible to accumulate some measure of
fortune. If you teach your children to do the same (as they grow up in a
frugal household), they will become the next tier of the pyramid.

I really, truly believe this. I was raised in a large family and inherited
nothing of worth. I'm not done working yet, but I'm encouraged by the way
things are progressing and have hopes all of my kids will go to college and
emerge without a mountain of debt.

In America, the dream can be obtained. It will take time, though.

