This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 4, 2011 - Despite the nation's still-sputtering economy, Markia Holt, 17, of St. Louis is busy making plans for her future and believes America is still the land of opportunity.
"I love this country," she said with enthusiasm. "There is so much we have to offer here. When I do research on how people in other countries are living. Wow. There is no room for complaining. Yes, we are experiencing economic issues, but eventually we are going to overcome them, and eventually we will be better."
Holt, a senior at Christian Academy of Greater St. Louis, has applied to the University of Missouri Columbia, where she wants to major in journalism and media studies. As she completes her high school studies, she is getting a jump on college, taking a public speaking course at University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Holt credits her parents for her drive to achieve and for teaching their children the importance of education.
"They have always instilled in us that you have to work," she said. "You cannot be mediocre. They don't accept anything less than your best. You are supposed to put maximum effort in everything you do. We all have good grades and are on the honor roll."
Holt is among dozens of thoughtful readers who have responded to a Beacon query about class. In her written response, she summed up her thoughts on social mobility and the American Dream.
"I believe that your success is determined by the amount of effort you put in," she wrote. "If you work diligently and try hard, the results will often work in your favor."
She acknowledges that there can be extenuating factors.
"Some people were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, while others have just had a bad break," she added.
Resilience and the American Dream
The American spirit lives on.
That's the gold nugget from a comprehensive research project conducted by the Economic Mobility Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Researchers talked to a wide swath of Americans in January 2009, taking into account demographics such as age, gender, race and income.
Despite a stubbornly high national unemployment rate and a housing market swamped by foreclosures and underwater mortgages, the Pew researchers found that 79 percent of Americans believe it is possible "to get ahead," even as they expressed confidence that current conditions are not permanent.
- 72 percent said they believe their own economic circumstances will improve over the next 10 years; 15 percent said they expect a decline.
- The optimism was shared almost equally by Americans in the lowest income quintile and in the highest.
- 89 percent of respondents under 30 said they were confident that things will get better.
As she thinks about her own future, Holt said that she is inspired by the rags-to-riches success of talk show host Oprah Winfrey who now runs her own TV network and a vast business enterprise.
"She has broken down so many barriers and stereotypes," Holt said.
Holt defines her own family as being in the middle class. She said her mother works in home-health care and her father does maintenance work while studying to be a minister. Her two brothers also attend private Christian schools.
"To me, the middle class means the average John Doe," Holt said.
She describes the lower class as people who are struggling, while she believes the upper class has a completely different social standing and outlook.
"I think middle-class people work harder because they are trying to achieve more and get to a higher level," she said.
Holt believes the American Dream is based on an individual's aspirations and that people can find happiness, no matter what their occupations.
"It's what you define as happiness," she said.
One for All, or All for One?
Stephen Jellen, 62, of Edwardsville, believes that the U.S. is at an economic crossroads that has been created by an intersection of complex factors -- automation, technology, the global economy, you name it -- and only time will tell where all of that will lead.
"We really don't know what's going to happen, and I suspect that it's not going to return to the 1950s and so Americans need to stop trying to find these absolute answers," he said. "That's what this ideological battle is all about: Should the markets be totally free? Should corporations be allowed to do whatever they want, or should the government tell them every move to make? There's got to be a more practical way of dealing with that issue."
Jellen, a retired carpenter, studied geology in college before joining his father in the construction business. He is an avid student of sociology, political science and economics, and he has given considerable thought to the nation's economic path. He cautions that uncertain times can give rise to simplistic answers.
"People can endure hardship pretty well," he said. "Everything in our evolution has been about that. What we can't tolerate is uncertainty. That drives us nuts and when we get too much of that we start looking for someone who has all the answers."
In his response to the Beacon's Public Insight Network query on class, Jellen suggested that the prevailing notions of class matter more than the actuality, and he believes it is important to distinguish between an official caste system that sets legal controls on social mobility.
"Often the folks most aware of class are those whose circumstances have changed for better or worse," he wrote. "Indeed, our democracy discourages class. True class needs to be immutable and inheritable. Ours is just a matter of how much money one is making at the moment. To what class does Bernie Madoff belong?"
Jellen believes that the notion of class in the U.S. tends to be based on income - and that seems an obvious distinction until you attempt to apply it methodically to individuals: For example, an insurance salesperson with a high school education might make more money than a college professor with a doctorate.
"Is the millionaire family farmer upper class because of his wealthy capitalist ways?" Jellen asks. "Or do his overalls and day spent shoveling manure relegate him to the lower class? What of the carpenter/philosopher? The rich athlete whose family lives in poverty? Class existed (exists) in European society as an evolved residue of feudalism. In America, class has never had much meaning. Ploughboys become presidents and blue bloods become beggars. In a true class society neither of those could happen."
On the other hand, Jellen expresses concern that an inescapable economic "underclass" could be developing in the U.S., largely based on education - or the lack of it.
"There is something that sort of looks like class that is developing where if you're educated you can do very well, and there really isn't a place for the high school graduate," Jellen said. "Those folks were needed when America was industrial because they needed people who could operate machinery and who could read a technical manual and understand how to make machines work."
Jellen describes himself as middle class, though he says that has changed over time, fluctuating with the way his business was going.
"I have enough of everything material that I need. I have a little savings; I can go on vacation if I want to and I can send my kids to college," he said. "That's really what it means to me; it means that I'm not impoverished."
In these complicated economic times, Jellen thinks that Americans struggle with their beliefs in the rights of individuals vs. the needs of the community.
"When there's prosperity and everyone is doing well, people tend to want to be more individualistic, and when things aren't going so well, then they think we should cooperate a little bit," he said.
The American Dream: Who Believes?
Here are some key findings from the 2009 Economic Mobility Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, https://www.economicmobility.org/ that queried Americans about social mobility and the American Dream:
- 74 percent of respondents believe they have some control over their own economic situation.
- More than half (53 percent) said that the lack of upward mobility from the bottom rung of the income ladder is a major problem for the U.S., while 17 percent said they are concerned about how little downward mobility there is from the top. (The project's research found that 42 percent of children born to parents on the bottom rung remain there a generation later; 39 percent of children born to parents on the top rung remain there.)
- 71 percent believe that personal attributes, such as hard work and drive, are more important to economic mobility than external conditions.
- While an overwhelming majority of Americans describe the current economic condition of the country negatively, 79 percent -- including lower-income, less-educated and unemployed Americans -- said that it is still possible for people to get ahead.
- 72 percent said they believe their economic circumstances will improve in the next 10 years. African Americans in the survey were the most optimistic (85 percent) compared to whites (71 percent) and Hispanics (77 percent).
- 39 percent said they believe that it is common for someone in the U.S. to start out poor, work hard and become rich. (According to research cited by the project, just 6 percent of Americans who were born to parents in the bottom fifth of the income distribution make it to the top fifth in adulthood.)
