From this Joseph Stiglitz
commentary in the
New York Times:
Our skyrocketing inequality — so contrary to our meritocratic ideal
of America as a place where anyone with hard work and talent can “make
it” — means that those who are born to parents of limited means are
likely never to live up to their potential. Children in other rich
countries like Canada, France, Germany and Sweden have a better chance
of doing better than their parents did than American kids have. More
than a fifth of our children live in poverty — the second worst of all
the advanced economies, putting us behind countries like Bulgaria,
Latvia and Greece.
Our society is squandering its most valuable
resource: our young. The dream of a better life that attracted
immigrants to our shores is being crushed by an ever-widening chasm of
income and wealth. Tocqueville, who in the 1830s found the egalitarian
impulse to be the essence of the American character, is rolling in his
grave.
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