Moving Up in America

THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY is a term which is often used to describe the United States of America. And so it is. One can move from low to high in America with relative dexterity. Which is good, because in America, there's a whole lot of moving to do, a lot of distance to cover, whether one is talking low to middle, middle to high, or high to celebrity. The gap between rich and poor has always been enormous during the recent history of north america, the european domination phase, which commenced in the early seventeenth century. In colonial America the Dutch aristocrats ruled and owned New York state, all of it, from their gigantic mansions along the Hudson, and everyone living in that future state, everyone else, was a squatter. In virginia, from 1650 on, the one percent owned the ninety nine percent, lock, stock, barrel, slave, and indentured servant. Bear in mind that before the American Civil War, over half the population of white free folk were "indentured servants", otherwise known as "slave laborers". They came from the ghettos of Europe in the shit filled bottoms of wooden ships, and, if they survived teh transit, spent seven years as property of some American aristocrat before being freed to fight personal poverty freely. Currently the gap between the rich and the poor is greater in the United States than just about anywhere else in the world, and this fact is being much publicized of late by Obama himself, among others. But really, its no different than its ever been. Enter the big boys from post doctoral Harvard. With great frequency they tell us the most fascinating things. They tell us now, after due research and study, it turns out that social and economic upward mobility is more difficult to manifest in the U.S. than in every other industrialized country in the world, including all of Europe. In other words, its quite possible in America to pull one's self up by one's boot straps, but harder than nearly everywhere else. The funny thing is, the Unites States is the only country in the world which incessantly boasts of its opportunity laden society. Upon further reflection, that's hardly surprising.