American Meritocracy

[finehoe]

A new research paper shows how even "poor kids who do everything right don't do much better than rich kids who do everything wrong":



You can see that in the above chart, based on a new paper from Richard Reeves and Isabel Sawhill, presented at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's annual conference. Specifically, rich high school dropouts remain in the top about as much as poor college grads stay stuck in the bottom — 14 versus 16 percent, respectively. Not only that, but these low-income strivers are just as likely to end up in the bottom as these wealthy ne'er-do-wells.

http://www.bostonfed.org/inequality2014/papers/reeves-sawhill.pdf

[WarDamJagFan]

Did they make any mention of what the "poor college grads" actually majored in for this study?  There are huge differences in starting salaries between an Engineering grad and an Art History grad - no matter what financial background that student came from.

[finehoe]

Did they make any mention of what the "poor college grads" actually majored in for this study?  There are huge differences in starting salaries between an Engineering grad and an Art History grad - no matter what financial background that student came from.

No doubt a person's major influences their earnings, but you seem to have missed the part where high school dropouts end up better off than a college graduates, regardless of their major.

[Gunnar]

Did they make any mention of what the "poor college grads" actually majored in for this study?  There are huge differences in starting salaries between an Engineering grad and an Art History grad - no matter what financial background that student came from.

I would make a strong guess to say that kids from a poor background who manage to make it to college don't (on average) major in pre-columbian pottery, i.e. they look for majors that help them get ahead / make money rather than those they think are fun.