Friday, November 20, 2009

Opportunity for All

My colleague recently posted a blog entitled "Inequality Leading to More Inequality" discussing how economic inequalities are hurting America by creating unequal opportunities. His basis for this argument is that "dumb rich kids" have a greater chance of finishing college than "smart poor kids". He fails to recognize that even though it may be easier for a rich kid to enter college, it is not any easier for that kid to graduate. The fact that the "smart poor kid" is able to attend college shows that economic inequalities do not prevent this opportunity. History is full of examples of relatively poor, underprivileged American citizens who have obtained higher education and gone on to achieve great success in their chosen profession. A recent example is the newly appointed Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor, a product of immigrant parents who grew up in the projects in The Bronx New York. Another example is President Bill Clinton who was born into a poor single-parent household. Any American who is willing to work hard to achieve their goals is provided an equal opportunity to succeed. Granted entry into college may be harder than it is for a rich kid, but clearly the opportunities exist.
The blogger makes vague statements about how the government needs to step up to reduce economic inequalities, but makes no indications of how this should be done. The fact remains that this is a free capitalist society. Experience tells us that communism doesn't work, and it's not our government's responsibility to spread the wealth equally across the population.

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