FACT: Socioeconomic mobility in the United States is at its most sluggish in history.
The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that's the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time-sharing computer terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today? To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success with a society that provides opportunities for all, multiplying the sudden flowering of talent in every field and profession. The world could be so much richer than the world we settled for.
– Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers:The Story of Success (2008)It's an important lesson, I believe, at a time when Americans are choosing to reduce benefits to society at large in order to preserve the wealth and power of a very small group of corporatists, to perpetuate war and a growing "security state." Trickle-down was a good idea, people, it just failed.
I think Americans have made their choice. I also believe the outcome of that choice is quite clear, and inevitable. Good luck with it. Just leave me the fuck out of it.
