Despite the fact that Democrats and Republicans see themselves as having competing views about America, the theme of bootstrapping, or lifting oneself up the social and economic ladder through individual effort, hard work and personal responsibility, have taken center stage for both parties. At his convention, Republican Chris Christie, for example, talked about how his Irish father and Sicilian mother grew up in poverty but made better lives for their children with elbow grease and American ingenuity. Then this week Michelle Obama spoke about how the lives of both her father and President Obama’s grandmother showed that even if one starts out with little money, hard work and effort can lead to better lives for the next generation.  Republican Senator Marco Rubio shared the details of his family’s immigration to the United States from Cuba and Democrat Elizabeth Warren talked about her rise from poverty and hardship to a professorship at Harvard Law School.  They all either bootstrapped themselves up the economic ladder or benefitted from the bootstrapping of their parents and grandparents. (MORE: The First Lady Argues for a Second Term) The concept of bootstrapping dates back to at least the 1890s, when Horatio Alger wrote novels about boys who worked hard and rose up the social ladder from poverty and is intertwined with that other mythical ideal, the American Dream.  Today, however, according to the recent Pew Study on the American Dream, social mobility between the lowest levels of American society and the middle class is increasingly difficult, if not impossible. Specifically, the study found that while a large number of Americans (84 percent) have a higher family income than did their parents, those born at both the top and the bottom of the “income ladder” stay where they are from one generation to the next. What that means is that those who begin life wealthy pass that wealth, but those born at the bottom—in other words those who would typically be candidates for bootstrapping—are now more likely to stay there. This is particularly true for African Americans … Continue reading The Myth of Bootstrapping