HUD Secretary

Before the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development can be confirmed, the American Senate held a hearing to interview this man, Ben Carson. He told his story:

"[H]is mother used to work cleaning beautiful homes. One day she asked him if he would rather live in those nice houses or the house in which he and his brother lived in Detroit. She told him that only he could decide the type of home he would eventually live in by how much he studied in school and the choices he made for his life.

"Thus motivated, Carson said he went from last in his class to first, and people who used to call him “dummy” started asking him for help with their schoolwork."

Dr. Carson (he became a brain surgeon) spent his childhood being poor in Detroit. Sharing similar experiences with people he will try to help in his new position - it can only be a good thing.

World families

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Gapminder's "Dollar Street" is their photo survey of families at different levels of wealth from various countries. Click on a family to see their home, the place they eat dinner, their stove, their bathroom door, their bed, etc.

The poorest may pay about 80% of their income for food - low in nutrition and little variety. Many dream of owning some goats or a better home. A relatively wealthy family in Mexico still pays about 30% of their income for food, but they have refrigeration and can store meat.

Visit the homes of families all over the world. Pictures speak volumes. The European mother below lives in a 1-bedroom house with her grandmother and her seven children.

photo: gapminder.com

Law protects

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

The rule of law helps obtain justice for the poor and powerless. Just outside Buenos Aires, Argentina, the area of La Cava lacks the protection of the rule of law.

Without clear property title, it's hard to prove your property belongs to you. Without lawful enforcing of contracts, it's hard to go after the compensation you negotiated. Without access to courts, it's hard to pursue your "just reward."

New LOWER Class

This book, Coming Apart, says that there is a New Lower Class (NLC) in America at the same time as the New Upper Class described in my earlier posts.  This is the reason that America is "coming apart" - greatly  increasing distance between the two new classes is pulling our country apart in a number of ways according to this author.

How are they different?  In education and affluence of course.  But in addition to that, there are some differences that you might not expect.   Sociologist and author of Coming Apart, Charles Murray, references studies to show the following:

• The core of religious believers is less influential in the NLC
• Marriages overall are fewer in number and less happy in the NLC
• People generally, but especially men, are less industrious in the NLC 

And in the New Upper Class?

• Religion is still important
• Marriage is more common and happier 
• Men in particular as well as women work longer hours

SuperZips: "Overeducated Elite Snobs"

That New Upper Class we were talking about, they carry with them "an unmistakable whiff of a 'we're better than the rabble' mentality."  Some people call them "Overeducated Elite Snobs" (OES).

"The daily yoga and jogging that keep them whippet-thin are not just healthy things for them to do; people who are overweight are less admirable as people.  Deciding not to recycle does not reflect just an alternative opinion about whether recycling makes sense; it is inherently irresponsible.  Smokers are not to be worried about, but to be held in contempt.

"They just quietly believe that they and their peers are superior to the rest of the population, intellectually and in their nuanced moral sensibility."

Where do they get this opinion of themselves?  Well, from their education at HPY (Harvard, Princeton, Yale) or another elite university, and from their super high income that is higher than 95% of all Americans.

Where in the U.S. are these SuperZips where the OES live?   More to come.

SuperZips: Home of the New UPPER Class

You've never heard of SuperZips?  Charles Murray created the term in his book Coming Apart, published 2012.

A social scientist, he uses studies and statistics to demonstrate the rise since about 1990 of a New American Upper Class.  These people have extremely high levels of education/intelligence and wealth,  They are segregated into homogeneous zip codes.

SuperZips are habitat of the New American Upper Class.

By his definition, SuperZips are the 882 zip codes in which resident adults have educations better or more elite than 95% of all Americans and incomes higher than 95%.  They are "substantially whiter and more Asian than the rest of America" and they enjoy a culture something like you would have seen in the tv series "thirtysomething."  They may "obsess about how smart their baby is, how to make the baby smarter, where the baby should go to preschool, and where the baby should go to law school."

"Members of the new upper class don't watch much television", but maybe PBS NewsHour.  They don't go much to "bars with pool tables in them, bars that allow smoking, or bars with many wide screens showing professional sports."

More to come about the New Upper Class.