Upward Mobility (the series)

How we can ensure the maximum number of people benefit from the material progress that surrounds them.

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As of this article’s publication date, I have been writing on Substack for about 1.5 years. During that time, I have written just over 400 articles on many topics. In contrast to the vast majority of Substack columns, almost all my articles are tied together by a common theme: human material progress.

Unfortunately, the organization of Substack is not optimized for new readers joining an existing Substack column with as many articles as mine. It is easy for new readers to get overwhelmed by the number of articles and just read the most recently published article. If you do so, I fear that you will miss my most important arguments.

To make up for this, I will be publishing a series of “Table of Contents” articles over the coming weeks. Each will consist of a sequential list of articles on a specific sub-topic related to human material progress. I try to make each article self-standing, but I would recommend reading the articles in the displayed order.

Upward Mobility (my third book)

A key sub-theme of my Substack column is Upward Mobility. Recently I decided that instead of following the traditional book publishing model as I did for my first two books, I would publish my third book as a series of paid and free articles on Substack instead.

The book is entitled Upward Mobility: A Radical New Agenda to Uplift the Working Class and Poor. In it, I describe how we can ensure that as many citizens as possible benefit from living in societies that are experiencing progress by:

1. Creating a prosperous working class by raising their incomes and lowering the cost of essential goods (housing, health care, education, energy, transportation, etc).

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

Enjoy reading!

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Table of Contents for the “Upward Mobility” series:

1. An Intro to the basic concepts:

   1. Why achieving Equality is an Impossible Dream

   2. Why Equality of Opportunity is not enough

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

   4. Social Mobility vs. Upward Mobility

   5. Social programs should not be about making the poor more comfortable

2. Upward Mobility in American history:

   1. Understanding Class in American society ($)

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

   3. Understanding the American welfare state

   4. Oh, LBJ. What have you done to my party?

3. The Pathway to Success and the importance of copying success:

   1. Why Life Choices are key to Upward Mobility ($)

   2. Why copying is essential to individual success

   3. More on the Golden Rule of Success

   4. The Traditional Pathway to Success

   5. Constructing a modernized Pathway to Success

   6. The Pathway to Success (part one, part two, and part three) ($)

4. Policy reforms proposals to promote Upward Mobility:

   1. Overhauling the American welfare state:

      1. The case for Upward Bound accounts ($)

      2. The case for a Working Family Tax Credit ($)

      3. We should phase out means-tested social programs ($)

   2. Why we need more vocational education ($)

   3. Making health care affordable:

      1. Employer health insurance plans should be voluntary ($)

      2. Medical treatment should have transparent prices and open competition ($)

   4. Making housing affordable:

      1. How housing became unaffordable ($)

      2. Why YIMBYs are only 50% correct ($)

      3. We need to stop fighting urban “sprawl” ($)

      4. How to make housing affordable again ($)

      5. Can a Land Value tax make housing affordable? ($)

      6. We need a Homestead Act 2.0

      7. Affordable Housing Isn’t ($)

   5. Why both the Left & Right should focus on Upward Mobility

   6. more

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If you enjoyed reading this series of articles, you might also be interested in reading my “From Poverty to Progress” book series:

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