The Forty Three Percent

Every study, poll, book, research; etc., shows that the American Dream of upward mobility is dead.

That's right dead.

The myth of upward mobility for everyone is simply not the case anymore. If you are poor or middle class, you are staying there. The percentage who escape their class and move up is decreasing every year, and is now practically zero.

That's right, old, white guys like me, who used to believe that people can move beyond their parent's station is life, are holding on to a reality that no longer exists.

White men over fifty make up the vast majority of Tea Party Patriots, and a large percentage of conservatives in this country. They blame immigrants for the loss of class mobility. I have heard many times, "If we only sent them all back to Mexico, it would fix things".

What? Mexican immigrants occupy the lowest class (caste) in the United States. They occupy the lowest, most menial of jobs. Are these guys kidding? Do they really believe that sending the Mexicans packing will open up social mobility for lower and middle class whites?

That kind of stupidity is almost beyond belief, but the belief and myth lives on.

So 43%, when asked how the rich became rich, still answer first: it is because of hard work.

Hard work? Let's look at Mitt Romney.

I actually knew Mitt Romney at Stanford my freshman year. He was, like most of us, homesick and in love with his girlfriend back home (who later became his wife). He was a "good guy", friendly and open. He was also rich way beyond me, a mechanic's son from Redding, California. I liked Mitt, in fact still do. But, he is rich man's kid.

In those days Stanford was more a rich man's school than today. The freshman class was about 75% male and 25% female. Minorities were rare. Prep school graduates were the norm, and academic achievement high. Today, Stanford has a diverse student body, and actually has as its mission, opportunity; as long as you have a 4.3 GPA or are a world class athlete!

It is one of the few places that a poor student can actually gain access to social and economic mobility, but it has a freshman class of about 2000 and 35,000 applicants every year. So, what are the odds of the American Dream? Do the math!

That was NOT the way it was in 1965. The only reason this poor kid was there was because of football. Stanford did not have a hint of social or economic mobility in those days; it was a rich kids' school (Ivy League of the West).

I also had a freshman roommate whose father was the CEO of United Press International and lived in Scarsdale, New York. He bragged that he was going to flunk out of Stanford, because he didn't like it, but his father was forcing him to go. He was rebelling against his rich father. He was a spoiled brat!

You can imagine how I felt, since going to Stanford was my gateway to a better life (which it turned out to be).

Mitt wanted out to, but would not flunk out. We talked about the draft then, that was a major conversation piece because of Vietnam. Mitt wanted to go home, but told us he would be drafted, because his father at the time was thinking of running for President, and getting Mitt out of the Army would cost his father politically.

In those days, anyone who dropped out of college, or flunked out, would immediately lose their deferment. Mitt did not want to go to Vietnam. Hell, none of us did!

At the time, his father actually was developing ideas that the Vietnam War was not a good idea. It many ways, these thoughts later cost him the Republican nomination for President.

But no matter what Mitt did, or my room mate did, they could not fail. They had a firewall beneath them, and would never drop into my middle class status. They knew it, I knew it.

And, I knew, to move up for me would require enormous work and luck; there was still the possibility, I rose to the highest position in my chose field, but I was (am) a rarity.

Today my story would be even more rare. In fact, my story statistically would barely exist.

And this is the big lie of America today. Social and economic mobility is dead. The rich always were protected, and could not fail. If they messed up, they always had their parents and grandparents to bail them out; George W. Bush comes immediately to mind.

But still, 43% believe in their souls that the rich worked hard to get where they were; this totally disregards that most did not.

That's right, statistically most of the 1% inherited their wealth, or their parents and grandparent's wealth opened doors for them that are closed to the rest of us. Ever wonder why C.E.O.'s do dumb things, ruin companies, get thousands unemployed? The reason is they inherited their leadership status. Aristocracies are like that, the elite get more corrupted as generations pass on, because they actually do NOT work for their success, it is given to them.

So, smart, innovative leadership declines in the rich; who actually dumb down their class.

THAT my friends was what established the American Dream in the first place. Jefferson and the founders of our Republic had witnessed first hand what aristocracy could and could not do. They began the American Experiment to counter the corruption of aristocracy. Apparently they have failed!

Mitt Romney and my room mate are perfect examples. Mitt dropped out of Stanford and did his mission in France. He kept his deferment. Then, after his father no longer was a viable candidate, he enrolled in Brigham Young University, was married, and guess what; kept his deferment!

And of course the rest is history. In spite of his dropping out of Stanford, which was covered by going on a mission, he succeeded through "hard work" by salvaging and destroying companies. But he already was a multi-millionaire when he did that. Daddy saw to that. He simply could not fail.

Recently he said he too knew what it was like to fear a pink slip. Please, he never had those fears in his life...never.

And lately he had the gall to say it was envy that drove people to criticize the rich. Envy my foot! It is the lack of economic justice that motivates the criticism

You see, I know these guys. I know what makes them tick. And it isn't pretty!

Aristocracies ultimately lead to social, economic and political disasters. Look at WWI, WWII, and the decline of the British Empire, France, Germany, Russia...I could go on but why bother.

I always was a pink slip away from financial disaster. When my wife got breast cancer, and the insurance initially said they would not pay for her therapy, I actually sat and added up all my assets to pay for the $100,000 procedure and came up way short. I essentially had no real assets, other than my monthly paycheck and a modest home. Romney would simply have written a check!

And I actually graduated from Stanford, have a Masters Degree, many Professional Credentials. No real upward mobility here!

My room mate actually succeeded; he flunked out of Stanford. He chose a more direct route, he got a wealthy doctor to vouch for a bogus physical ailment, and missed Vietnam. Today he is a "man of leisure", selling yachts in Boston. He never returned to college, and has spent his whole life as an aristocrat.

He thinks the whole thing is funny. He is one of the most valueless, clueless human beings I have ever known! And he is considered a "success from hard word" by my clueless Tea Party friends.

My room mate really screwed up. He missed the opportunity of a lifetime to go to a great University; he never challenged his mind. He successfully challenged his father and flunked out. He is stupid because it it!

And he had to work at it. Because his father was a big contributor to the University, it took him a whole year to flunk out. He registered for classes for a whole year, failed them all, and still could not flunk out. I used to take calls from his Professors, asking where he was. I would lie and say he was sick, while he screwed yet another girl in our dorm room!

But his economic and social status never suffered. If I dropped out of Stanford, I was headed to Vietnam, and upon return (if I survived), probably a state university, working my way through, and odds are dropping out to raise a family. No professional life for me. Basically I had ONE shot at it and I knew it, Romney and my room mate had many shots; they could afford choices.

THAT is reality. That is what is left of the American dream. The rich cannot screw up, even if they try, and access into their club is practically non-existent for the rest of us.

We have become an aristocracy! We actually always have been.