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UC Davis Economics Professor: There Is No American Dream
CBS Sacramento CA ^ | 11/26/14 | Steve Large

Posted on 11/28/2014 9:28:39 AM PST by SES1066

DAVIS (CBS13) — A UC Davis economics professorhas determined there is no American Dream.

Gregory Clark is sharing his research as a hard truth with no hope—whether or not you can get ahead in America is as predictable as any formula.

(Excerpt) Read more at sacramento.cbslocal.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; US: California
KEYWORDS: clark; mobility; ucdavis; wealth
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To me, it is always interesting when an argument is made in a single direction and ignores the opposite direction. In this case it is obvious from the thrust of the article that this Professor is speaking about upward mobility and ignores downward potential. These are the pertinent quotes from the article; “America has no higher rate of social mobility than medieval England, Or pre-industrial Sweden,” he said. “That’s the most difficult part of talking about social mobility is because it is shattering people s dreams.”
“The status of your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren your great-great grandchildren will be quite closely related to your average status now,” he said.

My query is does the same apply to individual behavior that is well known for causing downward mobility and is that not just as important a caution as his thesis? Not finishing school, doing drugs, having children out of wedlock have all shown to be deleterious to social advancement and even social stability.

My second query would be about how is he measuring and against what status? We have emphatic real-world demonstrations from legal and illegal immigration as to the desirability of American society over other nations. We have multiple testimony from Europeans as to how they moved here in order to live better.

In short, I'm suspicious that this is a form a Marxian argument that you cannot better yourself, so why try?

1 posted on 11/28/2014 9:28:39 AM PST by SES1066
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To: SES1066

My American dream is to be paid $750k to teach 2 courses, have a three month vacation and write nonsense like this.


2 posted on 11/28/2014 9:33:01 AM PST by Sooth2222 ("Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. But I repeat myself." M.Twain)
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To: SES1066

My father was a VERY bad man and his brothers smashed his head in and cut him to ribbons when I was 9. My mother became a hard-core IV drug addict. I was running the streets unsupervised starting at age 10. I made uncountable trillions of mistakes. America, being the closest thing to heaven you could possibly dream of, short of heaven itself, saved me. AMERICA saved me. Had I been born ANYWHERE else, I’d have been dead, in the joint, or living on the street, eating out of garbage cans.

I have a magnificent home, wife, kids, wealth, security, happiness, retirement funds. I live in a manner that Louis the Fourteenth could only dream of. I have heat and AC, and fresh food from all corners of the globe in every season of the year, and it is so cheap as to be scarecly believed. I have interests and hobbies and the time and money to indulge them. I can effortlessly and cheaply summon to my fingertips in mere seconds any one of 10,000,000 of the worlds’s books, and I could go on for the next 10 days writing of Americas magnificence and not even scratch the surface.

The American dream is STILL heaven here on Earth, though many are indeed trying to destroy it.


3 posted on 11/28/2014 9:35:35 AM PST by Doctor 2Brains
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To: SES1066

The American Dream is much harder with dimoKKKRATS in charge.


4 posted on 11/28/2014 9:37:34 AM PST by Parley Baer
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To: SES1066
Clark crunched the numbers in the U.S. from the past 100 years. His data shows the so-called American Dream—where hard work leads to more opportunities—is an illusion in the United States, and that social mobility here is no different than in the rest of the world.

Well, that pretty much nails it. The more obvious result is that hard work tends to work whereever it's tried. Jeeze.
5 posted on 11/28/2014 9:38:09 AM PST by sasquatch
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To: SES1066

And, hopefully, it will be said, “There Is No Marxist Dream”, in the very near future.

(Maybe all these Progressive psychos will move to Cuba to get their dose of utopia.)

IMHO


6 posted on 11/28/2014 9:39:29 AM PST by ripley
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To: Sooth2222

“My American dream is to be paid $750k to teach 2 courses, have a three month vacation and write nonsense like this.”

No worries. The Crash is coming and when it does you can take comfort in the fact that idiots like this will be among the first to starve to death.


7 posted on 11/28/2014 9:39:38 AM PST by Lurker (Violence is rarely the answer. But when it is it is the only answer.)
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To: SES1066

Message: it’s hopeless to better yourself, so best to suck off the government teat. Then we’d have the ideal society with everybody in poverty except the apparatchiks who lord over us.

Seems to me that system has been tried many times in many places with the same predictable outcome.


8 posted on 11/28/2014 9:40:23 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Lurker

One can only hope.


9 posted on 11/28/2014 9:42:20 AM PST by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: SES1066

It’s an American dream
Includes Indians too.


10 posted on 11/28/2014 9:43:44 AM PST by MUDDOG
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To: Sooth2222

Very nice!!!


11 posted on 11/28/2014 9:43:48 AM PST by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

This was published/commissioned by the Council of Foreign Relations.

Submission to a global government rule with it’s own global banksters and global taxation, demands that Americans be convinced that their system of government, ideals and lives are worthless and will be bettered by a new system of global government.


12 posted on 11/28/2014 9:48:59 AM PST by SaraJohnson
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To: SES1066

100 years of no American dream?

This fool has sat around pontificating for years and will soon enjoy a well-paid retirement, what’s his beef, considering he’s an underpaid teacher?

How did my father emigrate from Italy with nothing at the age of 11, learn English, fight a war, get a degree, start a business at 27 and become successful?

And how did I go from living on peanut butter in a slum at 30 to retiring in financial independence at 60?

How did some of my friends do the same thing in different areas of work? They all did it on their own, by busting their asses for years, that’s how.

My family has lived the American dream for two generations. This professor doesn’t know how it works.


13 posted on 11/28/2014 9:53:07 AM PST by SaxxonWoods (Life is good.)
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To: SES1066

A UC Davis economics professorhas determined there is no American Dream.

Certainly, not after being taught by you.


14 posted on 11/28/2014 9:53:28 AM PST by JayAr36 (Old enough to remember when this was a free country.)
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To: SES1066
“The status of your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren your great-great grandchildren will be quite closely related to your average status now,” he said.

I thank God my life is an example against this conclusion.

I think a much more important question than the socioeconomic mobility question, is the question of whether the spirituality and meaningfulness of people's lives, and the kindness and morality of society progress from generation to generation.

I think there is a direction to history, and we are making progress - but in fits and starts, with many occasions when we lose part of what we've gained. There is less barbarism in the world than 4 centuries ago, but there is still barbarism in the world.

We have a world in which people work in soup kitchens, give charitably to those less fortunate, adopt children, and in which the concepts of self-determinism/freedom, and equality under God (or the law) are widely accepted (unfortunately far from universally accepted).

We also, however, live in a world in which people still behead other people, in which slavery still exists, in which moral relativism is in many places eroding the spirit, and in which we are still only a few events away from a world-wide conflagration that could kill billions. IMHO, whether or not our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren will successively live in a world with less of these destructive things is the more important question, far beyond whether or not they will have a superior personal economic status.

15 posted on 11/28/2014 9:55:02 AM PST by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: SES1066

1) “closely related”. Well, of course! Is “related” mean “causes”? Why, even Professor DingleBerry won’t go that far.

2) What did Dr. DingleBerry’s parents do? His grandparents? Funny that he didn’t bring up his own background to prove his point...


16 posted on 11/28/2014 10:02:54 AM PST by Darteaus94025 (Can't have a Liberal without a Lie)
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To: SES1066

1) “closely related”. Well, of course! Is “related” mean “causes”? Why, even Professor DingleBerry won’t go that far.

2) What did Dr. DingleBerry’s parents do? His grandparents? Funny that he didn’t bring up his own background to prove his point...


17 posted on 11/28/2014 10:03:16 AM PST by Darteaus94025 (Can't have a Liberal without a Lie)
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To: Doctor 2Brains
Good for you.

You are another of the many American success stories.

I have many friends who on their own, coming from poor backgrounds, Made economic successes of themselves, and are continuing to do it.

One of them throws an elaborate Christmas party each year and I have always been invited.
What I get a kick out of at the party is he has two groups of friends; people like me from his poorer days, and other friends who are rich and influential from his present multi-millionaire status.
Surprisingly we all mix very well, and I always look forward to going to the party..

The American dream, if you want to pursue it still exists in my world.

My lifelong desire is to keep on fishing and would not get involved with anything that would jeopardize that.
So I am living the American dream on my own terms and am very happy,as is my wife and family. - Tom

18 posted on 11/28/2014 10:07:26 AM PST by Capt. Tom (Don't confuse U.S. citizens and Americans. They are not necessarily the same. -tom)
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To: SES1066

Contrary to the article, Clark’s work looked at more than the last 100 years and in several countries.

He found that both upward and downward mobility occur, but only very slowly, and that public policy and social institutions don’t have much affect. It’s very solid stuff.


19 posted on 11/28/2014 10:17:36 AM PST by GrootheWanderer
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To: SES1066
A study funded and published by the global socialists at the Council on Foreign Relations.

What else do you expect from another academic whore?

20 posted on 11/28/2014 10:17:59 AM PST by Carry_Okie (Those who profess noblesse oblige regress to droit du seigneur.)
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