Allen West Gets It Twisted On Economic Mobility In America

I see that Representative Allen West (R-Fla.) has taken exception to President Barack Obama in an email to supporters, saying that the president "does not fathom" the concept of economic mobility. Here's how West puts it:

I truly believe President Barack Obama does not comprehend American exceptionalism. He does not fathom that in America the station of your birth does not determine the station of your outcome. America is not about class or caste, it is about rewarding individuals for their drive and determination, for their hard work and ideas.

I suspect this won't be the last time I have the occasion to say this about Allen West: "Whiff!"

As it turns out, the reality of upward social mobility is something that none other than 2012 also-ran Rick Santorum brought into the political discussion during this week's debate. There, Santorum said, "I just read a recent study that actually income mobility from the bottom two quintiles up into the -- up into the middle income is actually greater, the mobility in Europe than it is in America today." As Jonathan Chait rightly points out, Santorum brought this up "as an indictment of Obama" -- just as West does.

I've no idea if Santorum was referring to the Pew Charitable Trust's Economic Mobility Project, but Brad Plumer suspects that this may be the case. And, as it turns out, Pew has something very specific to say about the impact of hereditary luck on mobility:

As Plumer points out: "The effect, as Santorum mentioned, is particularly pronounced at the bottom: '[M]en born into the poorest fifth of families in the United States in 1958 had a higher likelihood of ending up in the bottom fifth of the earnings distribution than did males similarly positioned in five Northern European countries -- 42 percent in the United States, compared to 25 to 30 percent in the other countries.'”

A 2010 report from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) makes the same observation. As HuffPost's own Dan Froomkin reported:

The report finds the U.S. ranking well below Denmark, Australia, Norway, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Germany and Spain in terms of how freely citizens move up or down the social ladder. Only in Italy and Great Britain is the intensity of the relationship between individual and parental earnings even greater.

For instance, according to the OECD, 47 percent of the economic advantage that high-earning fathers in the United States have over low-earning fathers is transmitted to their sons, compare to, say, 17 percent in Australia and 19 percent in Canada.

In other words, Allen West has this about as precisely wrong as he could get it. In America, the station of your birth plays a huge role in determining the station of your outcome.

It's pretty to think that these structural impediments could be surmounted just through the force of will and a healthy dose of Allen West's magical thinking, but as Henry Blodget pointed out yesterday, here in the real world, "social mobility [in America] is at an all-time low." How can this be alleviated? As Froomkin points out, one could fund early childhood education, maintain a dynamic "social mix" of diverse economic backgrounds among student bodies and promote "progressive tax systems and social programs" that "help reduce income inequalities." Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that Allen West is not a member of the party that wants to do those things.

Nice try all the same, Allen.

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Comments

[Thisboy]

08:51 PM on 10/19/2011

"He does not fathom that in America the station of your birth does not determine the station of your outcome. America is not about class or caste, it is about rewarding individuals for their drive and determination, for their hard work and ideas."

Yes. We feel so sorry for the thousands who inherit mama and daddy's millions and billions. What drive and determination they must possess.America, Mr. West. has become all about class and denying it exists doesn't make it disappear. Only a fraction of these 1% really started from the bottom Mr. West?

[l78lancer]

06:52 PM on 10/19/2011

Not onl does West get it wrong, he completely misses the point that the problem in the report is not characterized so much by race as by class, indicating that he - and the rest of the republicans/TP - are looking in exactly the wrong place for the genesis of the class warfare that they accuse the left of.

Either he really isn't very smart, or the right-wing propaganda is deeply pernicious.

[l78lancer]

06:57 PM on 10/19/2011

...Not only...

[l78lancer]

06:20 PM on 10/19/2011

So the TP reads something and they don't like it so they twist it around to suit their purposes - forget about the simple matter of changing the facts. Or they read something and just get it wrong from the outset.

No surprises here.

[biskitdaddy]

04:50 PM on 10/19/2011

I can't find any evidence of him ever having a real job.

[biskitdaddy]

04:34 PM on 10/19/2011

"Twisted". What an appropriate word to use with regard to any article about Mr. West.

[Mary Nissenson]

12:52 AM on 10/16/2011

Both Cain and West have protested what they perceive to be the "prejudice" of black Americans against any black man (or woman) who becomes a Republican. I'm not convinced it's "prejudice" we're dealing with, but, rather, a prevailing perception that joining the GOP almost always involves a repudiation of what it means to grow up black in America.

For all their protestations, Cain and West's contempt for those who live in poverty -- their insistence that so many very real and (for many) almost insurmountable obstacles simply don't exist -- does come across to me, at least, as a form of self-loathing. In simplest terms a "please don't consider me one of them' mentality.

The irony, of course, is that the very things they try so hard to deny are what make their own success stories all the more remarkable. In diminishing them, they diminish themselves... and dim what might otherwise be a beacon of hope for those who most need inspiring in this economy.

[WhiteGuy]

12:20 PM on 10/15/2011

Why do White Leftist hate smart Consertive Black people that speak the Truth. Is the Trurth a real problem that have kept Blacks back. If you work hard and smart you will get ahead.

If your waiting for the Leftist Government party to bring you somthing for Votes you will fall behind and that's the truth that Leftist Whites don't want you to know. Follow a MAN that made it in Life not one who offers you something in exchange for something else.

[morbius]

09:48 AM on 10/17/2011

The "Social Darwinism" argument has been used by the right in the 1890's (the gilded age), and the 1920's and Reagan revived it again. Unfortunately, Mr. White Guy, the facts show something different. In Matt Taibbi's "Griftopia", he documents how irresponsible behavior from the bottom mortgage broker to the top wall street banks worked together to extract money FROM HARD WORKING MIDDLE CLASS CITIZENS TO LINE THEIR OWN POCKETS. He shows how the Commodity Futures Trading Commission relaxed the rules to allow the gasoline spike to occur when there was plenty of gas. When you know the facts, your arguments fall apart like a cheap suit.

[l78lancer]

07:01 PM on 10/19/2011

We don't. We have a different take on "smart," just as many blacks have a different take on it from you, too.

[Fremon]

05:32 PM on 10/14/2011

One can't show charts, facts, or logic to these Republicans. They believe as most of the Pubs on what they believe which is their ideology and nothing else. "I believe it because I believe it" which is the breadth of their intellectual discernment.

[Avery Owen]

06:26 AM on 10/15/2011

Tis the Republi-cult way! Say anything long enough it becomes their truth.

[Thisboy]

09:00 PM on 10/19/2011

Because their statements are not "meant to be factual".

[cog702]

02:42 PM on 10/14/2011

Well, right wing toxic tea party members have never let facts get in the way of what they think.

[Fremon]

05:47 PM on 10/14/2011

I have a confession to make. I am of Cuban descent with parentage that came to the US (NYC) during the 1920s so I don't fit into the crazy ones in FL. We came to CA during the late sixties. In CA because of our looks were considered Mexican as most whites don't realize the number of nations in the hispanic world. I am a college graduate of 1960, the first of my family. My oldest brother followed got 2 masters degree,head of a VA hospital, and reserve Lt. Col. I was a Naval JO and got an MBA. Both of us, I like to think were intelligent. A third brother made over $1 million in a year he and partners founded. My oldest brother and myself in discussions realized our good fortune because we existed in a time of this nation after Civil rights that many companies and the govt reached out to select and fill in peoples "not of the American" profile with those like myself and brothers. We knew we were as smart as our colleagues, if not many times smarter, but realized that we were products of the times. If you want to see how intelligent many "whites" (we were also) were one had to have close associations during the 60's thru the 90's to realize many of them were in important positions because they didn't compete with blacks, peoples of color, or women. The field was greatly narrowed.

[br101]

12:06 PM on 10/14/2011

I think one of the reasons the black community may be the most unfortunate minority in this country is because of a lack of a strong culture. If you look at asians, whites, and hispanics, you can see that when they came to America, they brought a sense of community and culture that was strong in their home countries. This allowed them to succeed because of social networks, influence, etc.

But since many black people stem from former slaves, who were ripped from their homeland and made to serve white people, they were not able to come to America on their own with a strong background culture. They were not allowed to intermix or create and sustain a robust culture/community.

I believe this has a direct effect on the hardships that blacks face in the present time. Is that something an individual person can overcome just by being "self reliant"? Maybe, but on the whole the missing factor of a community tied to when they were forced to come here may very well be a factor that makes us see such high unemployment, bad neighborhoods, etc.

[thebearclaw007]

01:47 PM on 10/14/2011

Yeah, and all of the adversity that Blacks have undergone in the U.S. during and after slavery has had nothing to do with it? What a bunch of BS. Not until, the U.S. decides to turn on the humanity button instead of the inhumanity button concerning race and bigotry in the U.S.,will ever you' ever see Black communities change accordingly. One day, Americans will wake up and take responsibility for the effects of its bigotry on the Black community, but it probably won't be soon, considering comment like yours

[br101]

03:10 PM on 10/14/2011

I never said in my post that it was the ONLY effect. And I agree that bigotry is alive and well today. I was just commenting on a situational factor that would allow us to see how the solution of "self-reliance" in this community is not the only solution to help blacks have the same opportunities as whites.

[l78lancer]

06:44 PM on 10/19/2011

The problems in many black communities and in many black families is intergenerational and much can be traced directly to slavery, discrimination and Jim Crow. But let's just sweep it under the rug because some unwritten statute of limitation has passed in the minds of the people who don't feel the need or obligation to take responsibility - black and white.

If this country never deals with the issue it will NEVER go away. Just like the poor that problem will be with you always, too.

[Kelly Virella]

10:55 AM on 10/14/2011

And what West doesn't understand is that there have always been exceptional black people, even those who managed to escape the yoke of slavery, own businesses, have houses etc. Read Black Gotham: A Family History of 19th Century New York, for an account of those people right here in NYC. http://www.dominionofnewyork.com/events/event/black-gotham-african-american-life-in-new-york-city/#.TphM2psr2so (I didn't write this book by the way.)
It's the story of the black people who managed to escape NYC's inhumane 19th century treatment of blacks. That doesn't mean that America is exceptional, about rewarding individuals for their drive and determination, for their hard work and ideas. It means some people are exceptional.

[l78lancer]

06:33 PM on 10/19/2011

Great comment.

[Fattonecat]

10:49 AM on 10/14/2011

Hey Allen, go see a shrink.

[Fremon]

05:35 PM on 10/14/2011

West was tried in a military court for unnamed actions. His sentenced was overturned by Gen. Ordieno (sic) in Iraq and West had to leave Army service. He shows up as a FL teabagger and wins. That to me is "american exceptionalism". Even the worst survive.

[Kelly Virella]

10:39 AM on 10/14/2011

Where's Cornel West when you need him to bi%ch slap a right wringer, like he did Herman Cain the other day? "Are you smoking crack?" Cornel asked Cain. Some people can't distinguish visions from reality and Allen West and Herman Cain are two of those people.

[Elisher Taylor]

05:27 PM on 10/14/2011

Allen and Cain have had success; now they want to belittle those who haven't. The reality is, that in the end, they are both still BLACK!!

[Fremon]

05:36 PM on 10/14/2011

Let them see how their success will work for them in NYC when they try to hail a cab? Hey, do you know who I am?

[BeBop33]

10:06 AM on 10/14/2011

well, when you're wound this tight it's easy to get twisted...

[paulwl]

08:59 AM on 10/14/2011

Sometimes he should just keep his mouth shut.

[flingus210]

09:21 AM on 10/14/2011

"SOMETIMES??"