Writing for In These Times, David Moberg explores the dichotomy between the American belief that class isn't determinative, that social mobility is alive and well and that the rich get rich by virtue of their own hard work, determination and inate talent and not as a result of birth, status or luck.

The myth, or belief, that people are solely what they make of themselves is useful to keep in mind while reading two ongoing series: the New York Times' on class and the Wall Street Journal's on social mobility. Both focus attention on a truth about American society that runs counter to most people's deep-seated beliefs: There is less social mobility in the United States now than in the '80s (and less then than in the '70s) and less mobility than in many other industrial countries, including Canada, Finland, Sweden and Germany. Yet 40 percent of respondents to a Times poll said that there was a greater chance to move up from one class to another now than 30 years ago, and 46 percent said it was easier to do so in the United States than in Europe.

...It becomes clear, as the Times series is titled, that "class matters," just as race, gender and other accidents of history matter. The social class into which someone is born largely defines one's class as an adult, and both make a difference in how healthy or how long-lived the person will be, especially in the absence of universal health insurance. It influences access to education and to jobs.

The myth of the self-made person, however, encourages the person who succeeds to think his good fortune is due entirely to his work and genius. For this reason businessmen in the United States have historically been more anti-union and hostile to government than their counterparts in Europe. And the myth makes those who fail blame themselves.

Although I am a staunch believer in many aspect of the self-made condition, I do so under no illusions about how that reality is affected by class awareness, social mobility and the restrictions and problems created by the nature of one's birth class.

That's why I do the work I do - not only do I provide people with the normals tools and resources to try and climb out of their current situation into something new, I do a lot of work in showing others that such a thing is even possible and helping them find ways to do it.

Of course, as with all things, my own class and the options that gives me (and hides from me) play there own part in my ability to help others and it has been a bona fide slog to try and fight my way clear of a lot of the unsaid, understood and subconscious tethers that are doing their level best to keep me where I started. This is a good thing, though. I can only teach what I know from my own experience, so every roadblock, glass ceiling and blind spot I come up against and confront simply provides me with that much more perspective to work with.

This much is true - the American Dream, such as it was, is dead and has been for decades. The problem is that, just like a cheesy Hollywood slapstick plot, Americans have become so enamored and/or dependent on its existence that they've taken to dragging the stinking corpse of it around with them, dressed up with bright clothes and sprayed down with bathroom deodorizer to mask the stench of its mouldering miasma.

Folks, let it go - you can't deal with what is unless and until you're willing to acknowledge what is no more. Luck, birth, class, societal behavior and other factors do play a role in how successful you are likely to be, regardless of your own intrinsic worth, skill and effort. This is fact. What is also fact is that a society who cherishes the success of its citizens needs to understand that working together, rather than competing with one another, is the only way to ensure a steady crop of such prosperous members.

No man is an island. True self-made status is a myth, a subset of the Bread and Circuses part of our free gift with purchase for buying into the pyramid scheme of the American Dream - realistically, our efforts in the current societal set-up more often serve to make the rich richer without advancing our own cause.

As Moberg writes in his article...

Great social disparity means that the financially well-off use their money and greater political leverage to protect their privilege rather than to design policies for the common good.

...the very rich accumulate their wealth not simply because of what they did but because of the society in which they lived, and they have a debt to that society. And the heirs of such wealth are the antithesis of self-made men.

This self-interested behavior means that those struggling to come up from below have fewer and fewer infrastructural benefits, support and options to work with. Like European-decendent Americans trying to cap immigration levels so that other "self starters" can't have access to the same opportunities that created their own family's wealth, those at the top of the heap are doing their level best to prevent others from joining them, all the while trumpeting the facade of their own self-made status (And it can be yours, too, for just a few low, low payments!) to motivate their employees to maintain and increase the value of the holdings that keep them in power.

Unless we radically change the way our society views and handles success, prosperity and wealth, it is my firm belief that the American Dream will quickly morphing into a nightmare from which we will not be able to awaken.

Sweet dreams.