Donald Trump (Gage Skidmore)
Donald Trump and his buffoonish run for president has given us many moments of inadvertent comedy. The latest came recently when he complained of having a hard life. He told about how he struggled in the beginning and had to ask his father for a “small” $1 million loan. Yes, you heard that correctly.
This laughable moment exposes one of the centrals flaws in American society. America likes to bill itself as a meritocracy. That’s part of the propaganda that immigrants buy into, the idea that a person can come from nothing and become a billionaire. And while that might happen, it’s a lot rarer than people believe. Sociologists have tracked American social mobility and found it’s even worse than in Europe. Chances are if you are born into a social group, you are probably going to stay there. I witnessed this when I was in college in the 1990s, the inequalities became starkly evident. Many of the black college students were struggling to make it through college. Few got any support from their parents, and many graduated with thousands of dollars in loans — if they graduated at all. On the other hand, some white students got new cars from their parents every year and weekly allowances. I have one friend, a well-meaning white lady, who was married to a fairly wealthy man. Her children were set up with trust funds. School was paid for, they had cars and a monthly allowance. She had no idea that most college students took out loans. The problems continue after graduating, when you run into the unpaid internship scam. In many careers, students try to get prestigious internships that offer them a leg up into the job market. The catch is most of these internships are unpaid. So if you are a struggling student working your way through college you are probably not going to be able to afford to work in Washington for free for the summer. So that means you turn down the internship and miss out on all the connections and job leads. Children from upper-income families take these internships, because their parents can afford to support them. (When I was in college, there were some internships offered in New York working for Geraldo Rivera or ABC, but there was no way I could take them because they didn’t pay anything.) You also find similar problems in the housing market. Upper income families are able to help their children with down payments on their first homes. Low-income people don’t have this, so they have to negotiate high-risk loans, which include the down payment. There is also a racial element. Studies have shown that black families have substantially less wealth than white families. But this really shouldn’t be surprising, when in many cases, blacks were denied acess to government-backed loans. And when they could buy homes, they were in the black sections of town where the homes developed less equity. Affirmative action policies and changes in hiring in the 1960s enabled many black people to get good-paying government jobs, that allowed them to move into the middle class. However, a lot of those gains were wiped out by the housing crash. The result is many black families won’t even be able to leave property to their children. (Many white families were also affected by the crash, but blacks were more acutely affected because they were targeted with high-risk loans.) The longer I have lived in America, the more I realize it is not a meritocracy. The rich and well connected have a myriad of ways to make sure their children have a head start in life. Teachers tell their students to study hard and get good grades so they can get good jobs, but is that really true? I’ve found that if you come from the right background and went to the right schools, you can still get the best jobs, no matter your grades. The Bush brothers, George W. and Jeb, are great examples of this. Although Jeb was supposed to be the smart one, he is proving to be just as dense as his older brother. But both brothers were able to rise to the highest ranks of American society because of their family name and connections, nobody cared about their grades. Trump might brag about being a billionaire. But he got a huge head start, a $1 million loan, graduating college debt free and eventually inheriting his father’s fortune. Real rags to riches stories are people born with nothing at the bottom of society, who made their own fortunes. People like Bill Clinton and even Barack Obama, who were both born to single mothers. You also find many examples in the hip hop community. They didn’t get inheritances or $1 million loans from their parents and banks weren’t about to give them money. Many of them did whatever they could, including using illegal means, to get their careers started. People like legendary hip hop producer Dr. Dre, who was born to a single mother in the crime-plagued neighborhood of Compton. Now Dr. Dre is practically a billionaire. (His story is documented in the movie “Straight Outta Compton.) Another example is Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, whose father was a street hustler killed before he was born. Combs started off as a record company intern and now owns a host of ventures such as a TV station, clothing line and a record company. He has an estimated net worth of about $700 million, according to Forbes. Now that’s really starting from the bottom.
This laughable moment exposes one of the centrals flaws in American society. America likes to bill itself as a meritocracy. That’s part of the propaganda that immigrants buy into, the idea that a person can come from nothing and become a billionaire. And while that might happen, it’s a lot rarer than people believe. Sociologists have tracked American social mobility and found it’s even worse than in Europe. Chances are if you are born into a social group, you are probably going to stay there. I witnessed this when I was in college in the 1990s, the inequalities became starkly evident. Many of the black college students were struggling to make it through college. Few got any support from their parents, and many graduated with thousands of dollars in loans — if they graduated at all. On the other hand, some white students got new cars from their parents every year and weekly allowances. I have one friend, a well-meaning white lady, who was married to a fairly wealthy man. Her children were set up with trust funds. School was paid for, they had cars and a monthly allowance. She had no idea that most college students took out loans. The problems continue after graduating, when you run into the unpaid internship scam. In many careers, students try to get prestigious internships that offer them a leg up into the job market. The catch is most of these internships are unpaid. So if you are a struggling student working your way through college you are probably not going to be able to afford to work in Washington for free for the summer. So that means you turn down the internship and miss out on all the connections and job leads. Children from upper-income families take these internships, because their parents can afford to support them. (When I was in college, there were some internships offered in New York working for Geraldo Rivera or ABC, but there was no way I could take them because they didn’t pay anything.) You also find similar problems in the housing market. Upper income families are able to help their children with down payments on their first homes. Low-income people don’t have this, so they have to negotiate high-risk loans, which include the down payment. There is also a racial element. Studies have shown that black families have substantially less wealth than white families. But this really shouldn’t be surprising, when in many cases, blacks were denied acess to government-backed loans. And when they could buy homes, they were in the black sections of town where the homes developed less equity. Affirmative action policies and changes in hiring in the 1960s enabled many black people to get good-paying government jobs, that allowed them to move into the middle class. However, a lot of those gains were wiped out by the housing crash. The result is many black families won’t even be able to leave property to their children. (Many white families were also affected by the crash, but blacks were more acutely affected because they were targeted with high-risk loans.) The longer I have lived in America, the more I realize it is not a meritocracy. The rich and well connected have a myriad of ways to make sure their children have a head start in life. Teachers tell their students to study hard and get good grades so they can get good jobs, but is that really true? I’ve found that if you come from the right background and went to the right schools, you can still get the best jobs, no matter your grades. The Bush brothers, George W. and Jeb, are great examples of this. Although Jeb was supposed to be the smart one, he is proving to be just as dense as his older brother. But both brothers were able to rise to the highest ranks of American society because of their family name and connections, nobody cared about their grades. Trump might brag about being a billionaire. But he got a huge head start, a $1 million loan, graduating college debt free and eventually inheriting his father’s fortune. Real rags to riches stories are people born with nothing at the bottom of society, who made their own fortunes. People like Bill Clinton and even Barack Obama, who were both born to single mothers. You also find many examples in the hip hop community. They didn’t get inheritances or $1 million loans from their parents and banks weren’t about to give them money. Many of them did whatever they could, including using illegal means, to get their careers started. People like legendary hip hop producer Dr. Dre, who was born to a single mother in the crime-plagued neighborhood of Compton. Now Dr. Dre is practically a billionaire. (His story is documented in the movie “Straight Outta Compton.) Another example is Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, whose father was a street hustler killed before he was born. Combs started off as a record company intern and now owns a host of ventures such as a TV station, clothing line and a record company. He has an estimated net worth of about $700 million, according to Forbes. Now that’s really starting from the bottom.
