I was at a fundraiser for the best Private school in my county last night. The general manager and the main anchorman of the main local TV Station were there at a famous country club to do the auction. Some of the wealthiest people in the county and beyond were there. As I listened carefully to the anchorman he was praying that his kids now 5 and 7 would be able to get good enough grades to get into this private school around 8th Grade through High School. This fund raiser raised $150,000 for the school or more (likely much more in total). Then I began to think of all the kids throughout the U.S. in public schools and since I grew up in a public School in Vista, El Cajon (kindergarten) and Tujunga and Glendale (1st through beginning of Senior year in High School) I could see why these kids were going to Harvard, Yale, Stanford etc. and why they were going to be at the top of their class there with at least a Bachelor's degree or higher degrees. Because 100% of the kids that graduate from this school get accepted into 4 year colleges. Because the 8th grade in this school is as hard as most Senior years in High School for most public schools. So, literally every kid at this school would be on the honor roll at any Public High School if they attended one.
Today, I was listening to Fareed Zacharia CNN GPS (Global Public Square) and he was talking about how there is no more equality in the U.S. because of Globalization and the robotization of manufacturing in the U.S. and Europe. So, many of the jobs where people actually made things are now done by robots, 3D printers, etc. and it will get more this way over time because it is the only way these companies can compete on the world stage. So, this is unfortunate for American and European Workers who will see their wages continue to stagnate and fall as a direct result.
So, who still can live the American Dream? Those with the innovation and intelligence and the education to do it.
Two of the most famous Billionaires that both started in the 1980s were Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. They were always sort of Frenemies because their methods and ideas went down slightly different roads. However, they both respected each others successes and realized they both in some ways were cut out of the same kind of stuff. They were complete innovators in a way that would not have been accepted anywhere on Earth but on the west coast of the United States in places like Silicon Valley and Seattle and Portland and Los Angeles at that time. They were in the right place at the right time and even when everyone said, "Oh. You can't do that!" They just did it anyway and succeeded because they knew they were right and just were not going to listen to other naysayers.
The same is true today. People who have a good idea and know it is a good idea and have a good survival sense about what they are doing might succeed as well or better than Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did over time.
However, equality for people who aren't really smart or who don't have a good education or who don't know the right people both in the U.S. and around the world doesn't really exist for people without a good education in college or the school of hard knocks.
This is very distressing for someone my age (65) because in the 1950s and early 1960s any young man (even a high school dropout) that was strong and co-ordinated could get a job as a carpenter or garbage man or whatever and make enough money to easily support 5 people including himself. But, those times are no more in most areas of the U.S. today.
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