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Income inequality in America has been growing rapidly, and is expected to increase [PDF]. While the widening wealth gap is a hot topic in the media and on the campaign trail, there's quite a disconnect between the perceptions of economists and those of the general public.
For instance, surveys show people tend to underestimate the income disparity between the top and bottom 20% of Americans, and overestimate the opportunity for poor individuals to climb the social ladder. Additionally, a majority of adults believe that corporations conduct business fairly despite evidence to the contrary and that the government should not act to reduce income inequality.
Even though inequality is increasing, Americans seem to believe that our social and economic systems work exactly as they should. This perspective has intrigued social scientists for decades. My colleague Andrei Cimpian and I have demonstrated in our recent research that these beliefs that our society is fair and just may take root in the first years of life, stemming from our fundamental desire to explain the world around us.
http://theconversation.com/lifes-not-fair-so-why-do-we-assume-it-is-45981
(Score: 3, Interesting) by sjames on Thursday September 10 2015, @10:07PM
There's more to it than that. Some people get an excellent education where they end up with no debt and no work to distract them from their studies. They have an angel investor lined up from birth that will, due to family imperative fund them well through multiple failures until they make it. Their name alone will attract outside investment even after a couple failures. If they decide to work for someone else first, they go to the front of the line based on dad patting someone on the back at the club. If they break the law, they'll get a slap on the wrist ( see 'affluenza'). If, in spite of that, they still manage to fail, they can still count on being a media darling, people falling over themselves to give them free stuff, and having enough money that they can give their children far more opportunity than anyone in the middle class will ever know. That's a hell of an opportunity that most simply do not have.
The above ends up on a sliding scale on down to having to quit high school to bring in extra money for the family.
Luck plays a much larger role than the rich and shameless like to admit, but equally, the more times you can afford to play and lose, the more likely you are to find that lucky break. Some can't even afford to play once.
Given that, if you think we have anything approaching equality of opportunity in our society, you are delusional.