TCTI: Too Crazy Too Ignore
 Dave Ross

You can be anything you want to be, or can you?

September 13, 2012 @ 8:24 am

I hesitate even to mention this study, because of all the nations on earth, America is the one nation that prides itself on giving anyone who comes here -- legally, anyway-- the chance to be whatever they want to be.

But according to University of Michigan sociologist Fabian Pfeffer, you actually can't.

What determines whether you get somewhere in life is your parents' wealth. Education matters, so does occupation. But what tips the balance is wealth. The house. The savings. The family assets.

And this is true not just in America, but in Germany and Sweden, the other two countries they studied.

Based on tracking 5,000 families over two generations, it turns out family wealth determines whether a kid lives near the best schools, and whether, if they fail, there's a childhood bedroom to come back to -- which gives a kid the confidence to try something riskier and potentially more rewarding.

People who don't have that family backstop -- tend to play it safe.

The study ALSO found that most government programs that try to give people an artificial boost up the ladder don't work. Not even in socialist countries like Sweden.

In fact, what the researchers recommend, if a country is really serious about creating a land of opportunity, isn't more social services, or more government checks, but more private assets. To quote a similar study from 30 years ago -- "income feeds peoples' stomachs, assets change their minds." Or as I like to say, anybody can take a stumble. But if you have a little wealth stored up, at least you'll fall on your assets. I'll apologize for that later.

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Comments (16)


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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    "The study found that government programs designed to give people an artificial boost up the ladder don't work."
    September 13, 2012 7:50 am
    Duh.

    The exercise of scrambling up the ladder is what ultimately gives a person the strength to hang on to one of the higher rungs, enjoy the view, and not fall off.

    Putting a person partway up deprives that person of the experiences that prepare her or him to climb even higher.

    The primary role of government should be to make sure that the very lowest rung of the ladder is equally accessible to all. The government should be sure there is an equal opportunity to climb,(should somebody wish to climb at all), but not guarantee that a climber will achieve a certain altitude.

    The children of the rich start off with a number of advantages not available to the children of the poor? Do tell. Family income, race, gender, and a lot of other factors often still and unfortunately determine how difficult it might be to climb that ladder (especially the first few feet), but none of them dictate how high you might ultimately be allowed to go.

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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Wasn't it Bill Gates who said...
    September 13, 2012 8:00 am
    "leave your kids enough so that they can do something, but not so much that they can do nothing"?
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  • 710 wrote...
    Bill Gate's children
    September 13, 2012 8:15 am
    I have a feeling his children would still get more from Bill than what I will earned my entire life. Everything is relative. I agree this study to me is nothing new, but somehow a lot of people seems to believe otherwise. Or we have people who think we should just borrow money from our parents to start a business.
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  • Fuego wrote...
    Attitude is...
    September 13, 2012 8:11 am
    everything. That old saying "If you think you can or can't, you're right". The problem with these studies is it plants the idea that regardless of how hard you try you still won't make it as far as the silver spoon rich dude. Life isn't fair and never will be, get off your a55 and do something for yourself. Quit worrying about the other guy and focus on the one staring at you in the mirror.
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  • sportsguru wrote...
    Fuego
    September 13, 2012 11:08 am
    Real talk, now that's what I am talking about and what drives me. The moment I stop worrying about the jones, was the day I became a happy man and began to have some success in my own life.
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Dave, regardless of not being able to build a business without government help ---
    September 13, 2012 8:39 am
    It still IS possible to build a life. .. In Germany and Sweden and even in the good old USA. You see, all it takes is a little initiative and the barest of chances to follow a dream.

    Of course I come from generations of self employed with generations more to follow. From childhood I knew that there was no safely net except what we made ourselves. And not to think about the family assets - they could be gone tomorrow. Unlike the wage slave, if we (the self employed) expect a pay check, we must make it happen - not just wait until friday.

    At my age, I'll never strike it rich, but my grandchildren might. And all those rich today had grandparents who did - usually starting with no more than anyone else. Except they knew there was no net.

    But, Dave. I can understand your hesitancy. Because if GOVERNMENT programs don't give people a boost up the ladder - then who DOES build it ???????

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  • logical open mind wrote...
    In a college class I took, a lefty professor kept talking about a society needs to make life "fair" for all and I grew tired of it and said "Fair?, my roomate is taller, better looking, smarter, more athletic and gets way, way more girls"
    September 13, 2012 8:51 am
    The class cracked up. It aint fair, work hard to make up for it. Lots of guys do, including me and I caught up a bit to my "perfect" roomate.
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Logical, you should have been more of a socialist
    September 13, 2012 9:18 am
    Obviously your room mate should have shared the girls with you.
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  • logical open mind wrote...
    Ron, I learned to play the rebound. A guy needs all the advantages he can get.
    September 13, 2012 11:13 am
    Things did get better in the girl department for me when I got my first high paying job, dressed better, drove cool cars. This also makes a guy more confident so Im not saying it was only money. (Plus I spent more money on my haircuts, instead of the cheapest place I could find-wasnt a good decision to go cheap! :)
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  • sportsguru wrote...
    Sh!!ttt
    September 13, 2012 11:39 am

    Even Bill Gates bought his operating system from some other guy for $50k who didn't have the money to put it to market. You think if Bill's dad didn't have the money, he would have been able to be one of the richest men in the world,lol?

    It's easy to drop out of school when you have your rich parents support.

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  • MrMoPar426 wrote...
    No matter what the studies say
    September 13, 2012 12:06 pm
    they are correct. Statistics and studies can prove any theory or premise you choose. Analysis is an important part of knowledge, but it isn't the whole enchilada. Coming from a priviledged background can be a help in life success for children, but there are certainly plenty of priviledged children that have failed rather than been successful. There are also plenty of people who had unpriviledged childhoods that grew to be successful (Dori for one). Success is defined differently for every individual, and true success has little to do with wealth. Happiness and success in life come primarily from gratitude and being satisfied with what you have instead of always needing more to finally be happy.
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  • cdbtx wrote...
    Sportsguru
    September 13, 2012 12:58 pm
    Are you rich or a deadbeat? I dropped out of high school, didn't have wealthy parents.. got a job and eventually went on to become a VP with an International Company... now, along the way I've watch hundreds of people become slaves to the social welfare system - they're in the same place today they were 20 years ago..

    Gould is exactly right in his comment.. and yes.. there is an advantage with regards to education.. Condelezza Rice said that this would be the greatest social issue of this generation... and I'll agree...

    Charter Schools...

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  • sportsguru wrote...
    cdbtx
    September 13, 2012 1:32 pm

    I could be wrong, but you sound angry? To answer your question, I am sure that I am neither, but depending on what position that I take, most posters tend to tell me what I am, If I take a social issue side, I am a deadbeat, If I take a fiscal responsibility and/or liberty side, I am neo-con rwnj,lol.

    To give you an perspective who I am, I am a guy who grew up in the ghetto's of Oakland, California, a project called the 69th village in East Oakland loving called the "jungle", I am from a 2 parent household who both worked and at one point we were so poor that my parents was on welfare for approximately 6 months and my parents hated it so much that my father took a 2nd job just to get off of it.

    I am from a household that at that time preached education to get anywhere in our society so I grudgingly followed my parents advise and was lucky enough to go to college due to my ability to split football helmets and break facemasks, I am sure if I was not athletically gifted, I would have went to junior college and eventually paid my own way thru college (it would have taken substantially longer I might add).

    I parlayed my education and my military service into a career in insurance working for a national insurance carrier as a commercial and personal lines underwriter and now run a very small business as a contractor/consultant for several insurance carriers since 2007 at the expense of my future retirement,(I jumped on the outsourciing of jobs way before it became a political toy).

    As "Fuego " so eloquently pointed out, I am only live for my kids, wife and the man in the mirror and as long as I am ok with were I am in life and not trying to be somebody else or keep up with the jone's, I have been able to leave a lot of stress behind me. Now, it appears that we both have navigated a lot of barrier and have FOUGHT are way to whatever success is for each of us, I am definitely not a VP of some international company, but I am a founder, President and sole proprietor of my own life and business.

    Thanks for asking

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  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    I don't understand you Sports.
    September 13, 2012 5:05 pm
    You sound like a squared away guy. You had to work for everything. Two parent family. Are working and yet you come off as sounding Liberal.Maybe it's just me but I am not getting it!
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  • rational wrote...
    when you're right you're right...
    September 13, 2012 6:42 pm
    There is no way, for example, for a biracial child who was raised in Indonesia and Hawaii, an adopted son of an Indonesian anti-American to grow up, become a millionaire and become president of the US.
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  • Rangerhawk wrote...
    And in conclusion....
    September 13, 2012 10:11 pm
    Dave Ross and his pony-tailed pals shall champion social and economic justice for the unwashed masses. "You didnt build or earn that" shall be the battle cry as we march Forward to Utopia and a godless paradise on Earth. Amen. I mean A Man.
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