Ancestry, race, and gender are the most critical factors in determining and predicting a

person’s socioeconomic class.

Although two thirds of the poor in the US are white, those at highest risk for being poor

are children who live in single parent homes, whose parent (s) have little education, and a

generationally low to negative rate of inherited wealth. Race, education, family, ancestry,

inherited wealth, or the absence thereof are all powerful factors by themselves, but

combined they are nearly impossible to overcome. Like crossing the event horizon

surrounding a Black-Hole, all alternative possible futures are reduced to only one.

Census Bureau data is unambiguous about this. The distribution of wealth and income or

the lack thereof follows distinct patterns it the US. A few individuals may break-out now

and then, but for most the “caste” is set. If you happen to be born to a female of African

American ancestry you have a really good chance of being poor.

And why not? In a capitalist society, it only makes sense that capital, and thus those who

control it would be king. In other words those with capital make the rules now as they

have in the past. Their rules would be aimed at keeping their capital safe as well as the

ability to pass it on from generation to generation. To do this they influence and control

the political and legal process. Politicians may say they are not influenced by monetary

donations, all expenses paid vacations, or sweet jobs for themselves or their relatives, but

really, I ask you, which of us will get to have lunch with senator X, the lobbyist dangling

a ten thousand dollar check, or myself, a broke, first year student in a community

college? The answer denotes the truth. This truth ensures that they and their children
have access to as many resources as they need. Thus the children of the rich attend very

different schools than those of the poor or even the middle class. They are not burdened

with debt or restrained by circumstance. They have pre-existing connections to power

and privilege that give them a tremendous head start in the race of life; in fact I would say

they aren’t even in the race. It’s irrelevant to them, they’ve already won.

So which of the two general groups I described above are at greater risk for being or

becoming poor? Hmmmm, lets see? It’s the poor I think, that are most at risk for staying

and becoming poor. From the consequences of differential association, to the effects of

mediocre schooling, or lack of health-care, or merely the daily grind of trying to survive

with no surplus, no security blanket, where one missed day at work, or a health problem,

or just simple car trouble can mean insolvency, homelessness etc...

In this so called laissez-faire capitalist market driven meritocracy your success is up to

you. What a bunch of phooey, it simply is not true. Nor is the idea of the self-made

man/women/person. No-one makes themselves completely independent of those around

them, and to insist otherwise is folly and hubris. If you trace back the history of much if

not all of the inherited wealth in the world, you would see it has its roots in some kind of

exploitation of ones fellow man. As for poverty, seems to me it’s structurally built into

the capitalist system which is dependent on the efforts of workers, whether physical or

intellectual. You can’t make or sell a widget unless you have someone to make and

someone to buy it. Formula as follows: Cheap labor = greater profits = more capital…

Very macro, very micro, but over generalized, and editorialized, still a poor but wise man

once said; “Eat the rich, before they eat you!