Social Mobility

Some years ago, on a business trip to Mexico City, I was hosted by one of Mexico's most prominent publishers. I have fond memories of a meal we shared with his family at a restaurant that would put the proliferating Mexican eateries in our area to shame. What I remember most, though, is the conversation we had on societal mobility.

In brief, my host marveled at the upward mobility of the American worker. How is it possible, he wanted to know, for Americans to change jobs so often or to move up the ladder to management and executive positions? By contrast, he explained that in his country such mobility is practically impossible. His sons, for instance, were sure to follow him in the publishing business; there was absolutely no question about their future careers. The same applied at all levels of business and industry, as career changes and promotion from within were extremely rare. Because there is little opportunity for advancement, the poor remain poor, the middle class remains small and stagnant, and the wealthy maintain a privileged and closed society.

There are parallels in social stagnation all over the world, not just in Mexico. The shining exception is the United States, the land of opportunity. No other country (except Canada to some degree) enjoys the freedom for an individual to develop, to create, to innovate, to succeed. Most of the workers in low-paying jobs today will advance to better-paying jobs tomorrow. If they don't, it's not because of the lack of opportunity. Unfortunately, this seems to be changing.

The shocking increase in families on Welfare, Disability, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Unemployment is more than just the result of a poor economy. To me, we're seeing the permanent effects of a nanny state that is creating a new form of slavery, the slavery of government dependency. As I described in a previous letter, there is a growing class of people in this country who are content to let the government take care of them rather than seeking to advance through their own personal initiative. They have abandoned ambition in favor of dependency. If this isn't a new form of slavery, then what is it?

I submit that we are indeed seeing a fundamental change in America, one sought and championed by the likes of Barack Obama. It is the abandonment of a purer liberalism that empathized with the poor, decried oppression and injustice, and championed equality, in favor of a corrupt liberalism whose fraudulent compassion  values the poor only for their votes.