PRINCETON, NJ -- Fewer Americans
believe there is "plenty of opportunity" to get ahead in America today
than have said so across three previous measurement points over the last 59
years. A bare majority (52%) say the country has plenty of economic
opportunity, down from 57% in 2011 and more substantially from 81% in 1998
(down drastically from 87% in 1952 Gallup poll).
These results come from a Sept.
25-Oct. 2 poll that updated several long-standing trends relating to Americans'
views of economic opportunity.
While the U.S. has historically
prided itself on its open-ended economic mobility -- celebrating famous
"rags to riches" stories like those told by Horatio Alger or lived by
Oprah Winfrey -- rising income inequality and abnormally high unemployment
rates have caused some to call into question just how accurate this nationally
cherished belief is. Along these lines, many politicians have focused on
reducing societal inequality as a key part of their policy initiatives, and
President Barack Obama has repeatedly called for creating a society that allows
ordinary Americans to have more of a chance to succeed.
Obama has also spoken frequently
about the need for a "fairer" society -- one in which the prospect of
social mobility and the ability of all groups in society to get ahead is spread
equally. American attitudes about this aspect of U.S. society have changed
significantly over the past decade and a half. Today, just half say "the
economic system in the United States is basically fair, since all Americans
have an equal opportunity to succeed," while 44% instead see it as
basically unfair, and lacking such opportunity. This is a significant change of
attitudes compared with the economically heady and dot-com boom year of 1998,
when nearly seven in 10 Americans saw the economic system as fair.
Belief that the U.S. economy is
rooted in fairness is strongly tied to partisan identification. Currently,
Republicans are most likely to see the economy as basically fair, while
Democrats are the least likely. Although all partisan groups are less likely
now than in 1998 to say the economy is fair, Democrats are slightly more likely
to have lost faith, with a 20-percentage-point drop, compared with losses of 16
points among independents and 14 points among Republicans.
Both lower-income Americans making
less than $36,000 a year and higher-income Americans making at least $90,000
are significantly less likely than those in the middle-income group to say the
economic system is fair. Thus, despite the focus on the middle class' inability
to get ahead today, those in the middle of the income spectrum are actually the
most positive about equal opportunity to succeed.
Views That
Today's Youth Will Have a Better Life Are Low, but Not Historically So
About half of Americans believe it
is very or somewhat likely that today's youth will have a better life than
their parents. This figure is roughly in line with where it has been since
October 2010, and roughly similar to points in 1995 and 1996, but below the
level of these positive attitudes (71% optimistic in 2000). in a broad period from 1998 through early
2010. In 2008, for example, just before the mortgage crisis and recession, 66%
of Americans thought the next generation would be better off, and those
positive attitudes were an extension of even more positive ones at points going
back a decade. Thus, Americans' views of the prospects for the next generation,
quite positive from the late 1990s through 2010, have essentially dropped back
to the more negative views held in the mid-1990s.
Implications
Many political leaders and other
observers believe economic mobility in the United States is declining. It would
appear that a significant portion of the population agrees -- nearly half of
Americans believe future generations will enjoy less economic opportunity than
the current generation does, and a record number say there is not much economic
opportunity in the country.
Underpinning this declining sense of
economic mobility is the question of whether the economy operates on the
principal of fairness -- that hard work will pay off and that individuals, no
matter their background, can succeed with enough effort. Only half of Americans
today subscribe to this idea, far fewer than was the case 15 years ago. This
could mean that for a large swath of the country, one of the essential aspects
of the American dream -- limitless economic opportunities -- seems strangely
foreign.
Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/165584/fewer-believe-plenty-opportunity-ahead.aspx
Comments:
Our economic decline started in the 1970s. Unions dominated the auto industry and
quality suffered. Japanese and German auto
companies picked up the slack. U.S.
durable goods manufacturers were sick of unions and accelerated the off-shoring
of manufacturing of everything from clothing to refrigerators.The 1980s brought the personal computer and productivity rose along with U.S. electronics manufacturing. It was a “boom time” for the economy as the inflation caused by federal money printing in the 1960s doubled the cost of everything. Luckily, we were able to increase U.S. wages.
In the 1990s, after NAFTA, manufacturing left the U.S. in
earnest. We were told that we were
entering the “Information Age”. Well,
the information wasn’t good. We had
voluntarily allowed our manufacturing base to leave the country.
Since 2000, unnecessary environmental regulations based
on “junk science” and a 25% corporate tax rate kept investment locked up
overseas where it remains today. Our borders remain open and legal immigration
continues at over 1 million new immigrants each year. Our economy will not improve until these
errors are corrected.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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