Sadly, Americans are being convinced we have "classes" in order to support the progressive liberal belief that income and wealth needs to be "equalized". First, while we refer to the people as being in the upper, middle, or poor classes, that infers a sort of generational status and that is simply untrue.
First, several studies have shown that in fact mobility between classes is exceptionally high for those working full time. As in over 80% of the poor working full time won't be poor in 10 years.
Their "place" in the "poverty class" will be replaced by new young workers joining the job market, people who experienced tragedy impacting their incomes, and people who retire and can't replace their lost income due to lack of savings.
As a result, the "size" or percentage of people living in poverty remains relatively stable, even as the actual individuals who comprise that group change dramatically. This "class" mobility undermines a key premise that we have a "class system" in America.
We do have rich, middle income, and poor people. But not "classes"...
Interestingly, the same applies to the rich. As over 90% of family "fortunes" are lost within two generations. The composition of the upper class is equally dynamic.
CNN, one of the more liberal media outlets, reported on this incredible mobility between the wealthy and other classes.
https://money.cnn.com/2016/01/07/news/economy/top-1/index.html
The truth in your piece is that the middle class is getting squeezed. This is largely due to taxes and other governmental policies designed to redistribute their income and wealth to the poor. By definition when you take from the middle class to give to the poor, you "squeeze" the middle class and narrow the difference between them and the poor. There is no middle ground.
The idea of redistributing the income and wealth of the wealthy through government policies is a sham proposed by politicians to get elected. The wealthy earn most of their wealth through investments, and they invest on an after-tax basis. Raise their taxes, and they simply get socialized in the prices of goods and services. People who "sell" their time, cannot do that, hence wage workers get squeezed.
So, now that we have established, we do not have a "class system" in America and we do have mobility especially between the "classes", how do you escape poverty and how do you move up the economic ladder.
The answer is simple... hard work, education, and savings. You need all three. I spoke with a African American friend of mine, who said his father was the first in his family to go to college, since then everyone in his family has gone to college and they are all living at or above "the median income" in America.
Having a good education is important, but it is not enough. My ex-father-in-law was a professor of Finance, his counsel about how to get ahead was to work harder than those around you and be the obvious choice to promote when opportunities come along... and they will come along.
Lastly, savings are the source of wealth. Real wealth is when you don't need to work to "earn a living". I saved as much as I possibly could and retired young. I live very comfortably thanks to the income my savings earn.
Now a second part of your article which is partially true is that "great wealth" depends on luck. If you born an able to throw a baseball at 99 mph and hit a catcher's mitt 90 feet away, you can earn more money than most CEOs. If you pick the winning lottery ticket for a billion dollar jackpot, you instantly have a billion dollars less the taxes. And if you come up with an idea that everyone likes, they will throw money at you to enjoy your idea. So, there is a lot of luck to becoming rich, less luck in staying rich.
The reason so many people don't stay rich is simply because the luck that made them rich is not repeatable. If you win a billion dollars and blow it, it is unlikely you will win the lottery twice. If you screw up your arm and don't invest the millions you earned throwing that baseball, you will be "broke" before you know it. If you have the greatest invention and sell it for a fortune and then spend the money, you might never come up with another equally good invention. Society giveth, but if you spend it... you slide down the economic ladder.
What is the benefit of having wealthy people. Without wealthy people we would all be poorer. If Zuckerberg had not created Facebook, how people working for Facebook would be "richer". Ditto, for Google. Most of take jobs that pay us more money than other jobs, and those jobs were created by wealthy individuals. Envy and jealousy have always been at the root of revolutions against the wealthy and yet they have always produced a poorer populace than existed before the "revolution".
Want to do well, don't argue why the wealthy shouldn't be wealthy... educate yourself, work hard, and save.
