Why do poor Americans stay poor?

What to do? Beyond enforcing anti-discrimination laws and reforming the criminal justice system, a lot can be done to boost the returns to education and work. read more

US is the land of opportunity, the land where hard work will lead to successful life. Poor Americans stay poor because they either don’t work hard, live beyond their means or live a life of self destruction. If they willing to work hard and live responsibly, they might not become millionaires but will not stay poor. read more

Because our lives seem so unstable, poor people are often seen as being basically incompetent at managing their lives. That is, it’s assumed that we’re not unstable because we’re poor, we’re poor because we’re unstable. read more

In other words, the rich are likely to stay rich and the poor are likely to stay poor. The cycle is unlikely to end soon. Researchers based in Sweden (which possesses a lack of social mobility similar to the United States) found that the rate at which Swedish children of wealthy, biological parents were likely to become wealthy was a significant correlation of 0.33 (with 0 meaning no correlation and 1 being exact). read more