Here’s Why It’s Harder Than Ever to Move Up the Class Ladder — It’s Not the Reason You Think
Class jumping is becoming increasingly rare, this is why
Ever since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution that took place in the UK back in 1760, the rags-to-riches tale has been a real thing. Not in the way it is typically sold.
For example, as Malcolm Gladwell brilliantly showed in his book Outliers, jumping from poverty to riches is rare and nearly always a result of luck.
But moving from lower class to middle class, or from middle class to upper class, has not been rare and has mostly been the result of hard work.
This can be seen in the evidence. For example, throughout most of the 1900s, class jumping was extremely common across Europe, the UK, and North America.
Literally, if a person was willing to put the work in, they could make the jump, which is why by the 1970s, the middle class in America had accumulated a combined wealth worth twice the amount of the top one percent.
Yep, hard work was really paying off, and the people were being empowered because of it, so empowered, that living standards were rocketing, and wealth inequality was plummeting.