The Pathway to Success (2 of 3)

Part 2: How we can encourage youth from low-income families to experience Upward Mobility

A key focus of my book series and this Substack column is:

• Promoting an awareness and understanding of human material progress

• Propose policies to:

  • Keep progress going in wealthy nations

  • Spread progress to developing nations

  • Ensure that the maximum number of people benefit from that progress (or what I call “Upward Mobility”).

To promote Upward Mobility in the future, we need to:

1. Promote long-term economic growth (this is what I call “Promoting Progress”, the topic of my second book)

2. Create a prosperous working class

3. Promote a clear pathway that enables youths from low-income families to enter the prosperous working class.

In a previous article, I explained the importance of the Traditional Pathway to Success in promoting Upward Mobility for the American working class and poor before 1970. This encouraged youths to make wise Life Choices that enabled them to join in on the progress that surrounded them. Unfortunately, the widespread belief and willingness to teach our children the Traditional Pathway to Success has collapsed.

Creating a modernized Pathway to Success is critical to promoting Upward Mobility. In an earlier article, I explained the basic steps a modernized Pathway to Success should consist of the following steps:

1. Graduate High School.

2. Complete post-secondary education/job training to learn practical skills that enhance your long-term earning power.

3. (if you live in an area with few opportunities) Move to a metro area with much greater opportunities.

4. Work full-time.

5. (If you have children) Get married and stay married.

6. Save and invest at least 10% of your income.

I already explained the first two steps in my previous article. In this article, I will explain steps #3-4.

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See more free articles on Upward Mobility:

1. Why achieving Equality is an Impossible Dream

2. Why Progress and Upward Mobility should be the goal, not Equality

3. Why Equality of Opportunity is not enough

4. Why copying is essential to individual success

5. Upward Mobility in the USA (1947-1965)

6. Why Life Choices are key to Upward Mobility

7. The Traditional Pathway to Success

8. Constructing a modernized Pathway to Success

9. more

I also will be writing a significant number of excerpts from my forthcoming book: Upward Mobility: A Radical New Agenda to Uplift the Poor and Working Class. Most of these excerpts will only be available to paid subscribers.

Other books in my “From Poverty to Progress” book series:

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Relocation

One of the most cost-effective investments that a low-income youth can make is to relocate to another metro area that offers greater economic opportunities. The reality is that American metro areas offer widely differing levels of opportunity to youths. In general, there are three types of regions that low-income youths should avoid.