I like this piece. I also read your “reparations” piece a day or two back.

Just to give a Canadian’s perspective on reparations. We white Canadians did not treat Chinese and Japanese citizens very well. About 20 years ago, the government finally apologized to these two groups. A small amount of money was passed over, and most of it went to scholarships for descendants of those oppressed (grandchildren and great grandchildren). The money was not going to change things significantly, but it was a nice gesture that smoothed relations between the mainstream and these two groups. While the stories of oppression are still being told, I’m not sensing the same animosity there was before.

We are in process of reparations of our First Nations, but that is a much more complicated story. But I will say reparations will work.

Now to this piece. First: Great Job!

I think we need to get off this myth that all of us can be rich — if we all pulled up our bootstraps and got to work. Who would fix our yachts if we were all rich? Our economy just cannot support this.

Another myth is our social mobility. The USA was (and maybe still is) one of the better economies for a citizen from a poor background to raise themselves to a higher level. But the truth is — and always has been — that maybe 1 in 10,000 can rise from the ghetto to the country club. That goes for both the poor white kid and the poor black kid. The truth is that if we have a civil society, many people will raise themselves a bit higher than their parents. And, for the most part, many citizens are satisfied with that progress. They don’t want to get super rich.

So we need to attack the notion that just because 1 in 10,000 can make the climb up, the other 9,999 must be losers. It is their fault just because the “1” proved it is possible.

If my comments help in your future writing, use them as you see fit.