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“Not surprisingly, better
educated parents tend to
amplify class differences;
more education typically
is associated with a higher
”income level.
Much of the acrimonious debate among political factions these past
few years is due to the wealth disparity. It has been reported that
the top 1 percent of Americans now have more wealth than the
bottom 90 percent. In an historic sense, according to Why Nations
Fail by Kamer Daron Acemoğlu and James A. Robinson, two
noted academic economists from MIT and Harvard, respectively,
such wealth disparity combined with lack of mobility leads to
disruption—and ultimately to the death of a country. The premise
of the book is that those with the wealth and power block those who
want to be upwardly mobile.
• Inequity of opportunity and social mobility. “All men are
created equal,”has been and continues to be the promise of America.
We have long been concerned about whether young people from
different backgrounds are given the same opportunities. Will
everyone receive the same educational experience starting in pre-
school? Will every child begin his or her school day having slept in
a safe environment, having had a good breakfast, and an appropriate
set of clothing and books or digital device? If we embrace the
thought that “If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere,”
and not think just of New York City but rather America, you begin
to understand the challenge the next generation is facing.
Many of these inequities are due to America’s changing
family structures. Leo Tolstoy’s famous opening sentence in Anna
Karenina—“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family
is unhappy in its own way”—is intriguing but not necessarily
completely true in America today. Even happy families are much
more heterogeneous than those of 50 years ago.
The previous generation’s typical family structure consisted of a
breadwinner dad, a homemaker mom, and two or three children.
“Ozzie and Harriet” were carefree and just the type of neighbors
you wanted to be around. In their neighborhood, divorce was
uncommon, and births outside of marriage were rare in all social
strata. It was a prosperous time; one working male parent’s income
sustained a middle class or better standard of living. Also, this was subsequently have more opportunities for upward mobility.
pre-birth control pills and premarital pregnancy usually resulted in
a marriage, so children were raised by biological parents.
In the 1970s as baby boomers were finishing higher education
and starting careers, the traditional family structure fell apart.
Premarital sex lost its stigma overnight, shotgun marriages sharply
Life in Naples | February 2016
diminished, divorce became epidemic, and
the number of children living in single-
parent homes began a long and steady
ascent to the current level. Today, about 26
percent of children under 21 are living with
or supported by a single parent.
There are many factors which contributed
to this change in family structure from 1965
to 1980:
• Birth control pills, which delinked sex and marriage.
• The feminist revolution transformed gender and marital norms.
• Economic necessity created the two working parent family.
• Economic necessity also reduced security for patriarchal heads
of families.
• Individualism and “self fulfillment” emerged.
The outcome of this changed family structure created a bifurcated
class structure. The college-educated upper third of American
society mirrors the 1950s Ozzie and Harriet, except that mom now
works out of the home and dad splits the homemaking chores and
actively helps with the kids. There is a division of labor and divorce
rates have retreated. Children in these families still have a good
opportunity to embrace the American dream of upward mobility.
Unfortunately, those parents with only a high-school education
are part of a“fragile family,”as named by sociologist Sara McLanahan.
Many times childbearing is disconnected from marriage with sexual
partnerships increasingly less durable. Either parent may move on
after a divorce, creating a blended family with step-parents and
step-siblings. Otherwise, the children are raised by a single parent
which can create additional stress and even multigenerational stress.
Interestingly, college-educated mothers typically delay
childbearing and marriage until their late twenties or thirties,
and that is six years later on average than their college-educated
mothers. High school educated mothers have their first babies in
their late teens and early twenties. Older parents in general are better
equipped to support their children emotionally and materially.
Not surprisingly, better educated parents tend to amplify class
differences; more education typically is associated with a higher
income level. Thus a self-perpetuating path has been created:
Better-educated, intact, traditional families beget children who
are better prepared to flourish in a nurturing environment and will
Conversely, less well-educated parents are stressed economically,
and more likely not to have a two-parent household. Consequently,
social and economic mobility are stifled.
Understanding, engaging, and having the desire and ability to
encourage upward social mobility is good for everyone—children,
their families, and our entire nation. Social mobility is a key aspect
to helping everyone live a longer, happier, and healthier life.
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