The Brutal Truth About How Childhood Determines Your Economic Destiny

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/brutal-truth-about-how-childhood-determines-your-economic-destiny



"Give me the child until he is seven," the old Jesuit teachers say, "and I will give you the man."

Back in 1964, filmmaker Paul Almond set out to test that theory by documenting the lives of a group of seven-year-old British children. Some were born to the manor; others grew up in charity homes. There were tykes from both the countryside and the city. Almond wanted to know if the destiny of the children had already been scripted by the circumstances of their birth -- particularly those of class. His film Seven Up! has grown into a series spanning over five decades. Every seven years, like the cycle in some mythological saga, Michael Apted, the assistant on the original project, has returned to these children as they have morphed before our eyes into awkward adolescents, tentative adults, and now, the paunchy survivors of late middle-age.

As bright-eyed children, participants like Jackie Bassett, the product of a working-class neighborhood, or Andrew Brackfield, who attends a posh prep school, are already miles apart in attitude and habits. Tellingly, the children speak very differently about what they see in their future. Those from the higher ranks already know which universities they’ll attend, while Paul Kligarman, who lives at the charity home, asks plaintively, “What’s a university?”

As an American watching the film, you probably have a strong urge to see the youngsters launched on stormy seas overcome their disadvantages. (You may also harbor a sneaking desire to see one or two of the most privileged children, like smug little John Brisby, receive some sort of comeuppance in life.)

[malaise]

1. An excellent read

Americans are aware of class, but they overestimate mobility, which, according to numerous studies, is going the way of the wooly mammoth.

Rec

[whathehell]

6. American mobility has gone down a lot, but I believe it's still at least one step ahead of the UK

It speaks ill of us, and well of them, at present, that we were once WAY ahead of them,

[Kalidurga]

2. It won't do anything to shake most people out of believing the myth.

The fact is most the poor people I know work way harder than people that have always had money. They worked harder to get good grades. They worked harder when they were in college many didn't make it through for some reason or another and it wasn't they just didn't want to. But, if they had money in many cases it would have helped smooth over a lot of problems like childcare issues or having to quit because someone in the family got ill and they needed more care. People with money don't understand things like if your car breaks down and you live several miles away from a bus system you are basically sol, they think well why didn't you just rent a car while your car was broke down.

The truth is it is just easier to blame people for being poor than it is to say let the first two years of college or trade school be free. Maybe even going up to four years. And having a support system for single parents and poor families. Also another weird thing is most poor families I know are intact. Which is weird because I was told that the reason there is so much poverty is cause single moms. And I have known quite a few single parents as well. It's not at all uncommon. But, mostly I know intact families. So, we can ponder all day long why some people make it and others don't. But, I am pretty sure the reason is, that the PTB doesn't want a well educated population and they rather like having a desperate work force.

[Flatulo]

4. The Danes somehow manage to do it. Higher education is available to anyone with the aptitude,

at no cost. Their population is super educated, tech-savvy and they are crafty business people. They also have a strong social safety net, with free day care for moms who want to work or achieve higher education goals.

And they manage to do this with a market economy and keep unemployment low. They do have high tax rates, but people don't have to worry about dying from a bad tooth and are set free to achieve.

They also consistently poll as the happiest people in the world.

Whenever people start discussing what kind of society we want to be, I say Why reinvent the wheel? The Danes have figured it out.

[Ilsa]

5. This is the thing I dislike about our country:

As a whole, we think we need to invent the wheel again on everything. And helping others is "socialism". It sickens me how wasteful this attitude is.

[Flatulo]

7. Yep. As an engineer, we recognize a good design when we see it and just replicate it (within

the limits of intellectual property constraints).

When something works, you emulate it.

All the Scandanavian countries have figured out how to combine a prosperous, market-driven economy with a strong manufacturing base, low unemployment and a strong social safety net and highly motivated citizenry.

[pnwmom]

3. But you wouldn't really know how much is fixed at the age of 7

unless you could have a group of their families dramatically change their circumstances after that age -- so that those children were then raised with more money and education than their former peers.