Quote:
I *do* think that many Americans have attitudes about poverty which are excessively punitive. That is, I think they believe, without sufficient justification, that most people are poor simply because they don't work hard enough, and that therefore they don't deserve either government assistance or private sympathy. But mobility data illustrates the point that working hard is often insufficient, and that "equality of opportunity" is something of a myth.
The point, to me, is not therefore that we should create real "equality of opportunity" by using laws to entirely erase the benefit of being born wealthy. It's that we should stop framing debates about economic policy around this false premise that where people end up in life is purely a consequence of how hard they work, or don't.
yes you mostly correct imo
Although it is a strawman to say that people think " where people end up in life is purely a consequence of how hard they work, or don't." Very few people believe that anybody can climb high in the social/economic ladder, but we do believe that in the free west for the majority of people if you work hard and delay gratification you can lead a comfortable life.
The argument from the right about equality of opportunity accepts that the market creates distortions that are not entirely "fair" but that its not up to the government to use state force to hammer those distortions out.