Ah—the American Dream! Anyone can start from humble beginnings and achieve great wealth, or at least reach the middle class. Each generation will do better than their parents: higher income, more education, a nicer house, a more expensive car, more material things. All you have to do is work hard.
But how are we doing? Are we (or will we be) better off than our parents?
In 2006, the
Economic Mobility Project (an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts) looked at the ability of people to move up or down the economic ladder from one generation to the next. They concluded:
67% of Americans have higher family incomes than their parents (adjusted for inflation). But at a cost: families are smaller and many have two incomes.
BUT, just because Americans have higher family incomes does not mean they are moving up the economic ladder compared to their parents. If the socio-economic ladder is divided into 5 steps:
Children born to parents at the bottom rung tend to remain at the bottom, while children born to parents at the top tend to remain at the top. Children in the middle have an equal chance of going down or rising up. The “rags to riches” story happens only in sports or in Hollywood. On Main Street, few children born to parents with a family income at the very bottom move to the very top.
So, contrary to our beliefs about America as the land of opportunity, a child’s economic position is heavily influenced by that of his or her parents.
What about you? Are you better off than your parents? Or, if you are a student or just starting your career, do you think you will be better of than your parents when you reach age 40?
Comments (13)
Nope. Worse. I'm 51, my dad is 83, and has more disposable income than I do. By the time he was my age, he had saved almost a million dollars for retirement. I have about $800.00 in my IRA, if it hasn't completely tanked. My husband's story is similar. At least our home is paid for.
lol i'm sure i'm better off now and probably will be better off later ONLY because they've provided the necessities i needed to succeed in life ;)
Although money really makes life easier, money doesn't make everybody happy. I am pretty sure my life will be easier than my parents once I finish college. They had good work ethics and I would definitely say that they have worked harder than I ever will. Anyone at any level can achieve what they want in life. Some just have to work harder than others but the pay off in the end is rewarding. What is life without goals?
I don't know, I don't care. I'm not in some competition with my parents to see who makes the more money.
Depends --- One thing I've learned from my parents --- money isn't everything. It's more important to be a good steward and handle it well than to have a lot. When my dad was going to school and getting his Ph.D, we (a family of 4) lived on right at 1,000 a month (from my dad working part-time). My mom says she still remembers those as some of the happiest and most fun times we had as a family. My brother and I had no clue we were poor...life was good. Yet when my dad completed school and suddenly we had a six-figure income...the only thing that changed was that my parents bought a house instead of renting and we ate out...occasionally. (And amazingly he did ALL of that without ANY government assistance....work hard and succeeding on his own!)
So, if the question is asking am I better off financially than my parents or will I be...probably yeah. But better off in terms of a happy family, a good life...etc, it'll be a close tie! I just hope to have the love for my family and my husband like my parents have shown for each other and their family!
I hope that I'm better off than my mother. I see her stressing herself out everyday, struggling to pay the bills, have no savings at all and extremely disliking her job.
Yeah I really don't want that to happen to me. I know on a whole the American Dream is bs, and I don't want to be a millionaire or anything, What would make me happy is a job/career that I like and to not be in debt.
@Kaichiturtle@xanga - My mom is the same way even though she likes her job. :/ It makes me more money conscious.
Yes.
I'm not doing better than my parents, that's for sure. :p However, my roommate certainly is. :)
I'm better off than my mother, but not my father.
I dont think that you are necessarily doomed if you are in the lowest rung. Or even guaranteed anything if you are in the top rung. I think it all boils down to education. You can only teach your children what you know. Most times people are in the lower rungs because they dont know much about money and finances. The people at the top do - otherwise they could be making millions in a year and still have nothing. That is the difference.
So will I be better off than my parents? I will have to wait and see. My husband and I are definitely on a good track. We are doing well for ourselves - especially considering how young we are. (Many of our friends look at us and tell us they wish they had what we have, but dont want to listen when we tell them that they can!)
I hope to do at least as well as my parents. Thankfully, they have given me the knowledge to do so!
I don't know if I'm better off than my parents. I won't know for a while.
I don't like the stereotypes, but I can see how this can happen because of the students I teach, and how they get stuck in the rut because they have no role models. I'm sure that when I am my parents age I will be doing better than they are at their age. Right now we probably make about the same - between the two of them and the two of us (my husband and I). But this would be with my husband and I making the lowest of our careers since we just started, and my parents making close to their max. My husband and I both have our four year degrees and are working on our masters. My parents have limited education and no degrees. My father is a pastor and my mother is a secretary. But they are both very intelligent and could easily have excelled in any field they chose. They both started out in college, but got married and then never finished. I grew up poor because of their fields, but we were never on any type of government assistance or anything like that. I also always assumed I would go to college and succeed. I could have chosen to be a doctor or business woman who has a six figure income, but I chose to be teacher, so of course I will never have a huge income. So it upsets me when people say things like this, even though it is research proven. It isn't about your parent's income - it is more about intelligence and family background.