Capitalist myths

[Binary011]

What about the myth that if people work hard enough, they will move up the ladder in capitalism? And that it rewards hard work so there is an incentive to be a good worker?

[Post-Something]

It's called "meritocracy".

Just ignore it, it's the one of the biggest lies ever told.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

Social mobility: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/mobi-m20.shtml


The truth is very different. A study by economist Tom Hertz of American University, “Understanding Mobility in America (http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=1579981)”, finds that a child born into a poor family, defined as the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution, has an infinitesimal one-in-a-hundred chance of making it into the top five percent income level.

[Snip] Children born in the middle quintile (the 40-60th percentile of incomes in the country, $42,000 to $54,300) also have only a 1.8 percent chance of reaching the top five percent, a likelihood not much higher than in poor families.

On the subject of income volatility, the report’s findings also contradict the claim of equal opportunity and rewards for hard work. Those in the middle income levels—the majority of whom consist of both industrial and service sector workers who are commonly lumped together and labeled “middle class” based on their income level—experienced increased “insecurity of income” between 1997 and 2004, compared to 1990. Downward short-term mobility—an annual income decline of $20,000 or more—rose from 13.0 percent of the population in 1990 to 14.8 percent in 1997-98 and 16.6 percent in 2003-04.
This downward mobility was concentrated among those earning between $34,500 and $89,300 a year, while those in the top 10 percent of income earners ($122,880 or more) saw less negative shocks during this same period.





Even left-liberal bourgeoisie sources are citing as much: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/opinion/06herbert.html


Consider, for example, two separate eras in the lifetime of the baby-boom generation. For every additional dollar earned by the bottom 90 percent of the population between 1950 and 1970, those in the top 0.01 percent earned an additional $162.

Social mobility is actually greatest in heavy welfare states.

[Kropotesta]

http://www.infoshop.org/faq/secCcon.html

[Mariner's Revenge]

Social mobility is actually greatest in heavy welfare states.

Yup, because heavy welfare states tend to provide much better education for the lower class. Institutions do matter but education still plays a role.