Organizing for America | Walter Hecht's Blog: Opportunity

Opportunity

By Walt - Oct 18th, 2009 at 1:49 pm EDT

Also listed in: 9 groups

Comments | Mail to a Friend | Report Objectionable Content

The US is the land of opportunity. However, not everyone gets an equal opportunity to succeed. Some start life with wealthy parents and some don't. The child of privilege will be able to afford to live in a good neighborhood, enjoy good food and a healthy life style and a quality education. The child of poverty will be denied so many of those things. So much for equal opportunity for all. It's like a race with varying starting positions with the starting point determined by a draw. The slowest racer may be required to go two or three times as far as the fastest. That's not fair.

Reader Comments

But there are opportunities . . . . | Report to Admin

By "Obama Doug" Evans Betanco Oct 19th 2009 at 2:03 am EDT (Updated Oct 19th 2009 at 2:03 am EDT)

Walt: I was born to very poor parents, from coal miner families in Pennsylvania. My mom and pop moved from PA during the Depression to NJ to find work. They both worked and worked and worked, but the family finances never really got better: we just all survived, and somehow we all made it up to the surface of the economic sea. My grandparents also moved from PA and they helped.

I've been lucky: I've always been a star student and earned complete scholarships to college, then easy transitions to full-time teaching, finally as a fairly well-paid college professor, without any family money behind me. I do not think that whatever level you're born at is where you have to stay.

I've worked in Nicaragua, where Albert Einstein would be planting tobacco for 2 bucks a day because intelligence and spirit make no difference: there is no opportunity, never has been any, and, unless things change, there never will be any. Here, there is a hole in the ceiling we can shimmy through if we are persistent enough.
I still think this country is the Land of Opportunity, though I know it has gotten much harder to progress.
Sincerely, ObamaDoug

Re: But there are opportunities . . . . | Report to Admin

By SUE DUVALL SMITH from IndianaV.O.B. Oct 19th 2009 at 4:56 am EDT (Updated Oct 19th 2009 at 4:56 am EDT)

GREAT ANSWER...JUST REMEMBER THAT NO MATTER WHERE YOU CLIMB...AS LONG AS YOU MAINTAIN AN OPEN HEART FILLED WITH HUMITARIAN RESPECT FOR EACH OTHER...YOU HAVE ACHIEVED THE HIGHEST AND MOST VALUABLE POSITION IN LIFE. THERE ARE 'CEO'S' EVERYWHERE WHO AREN'T WORTH A PLUG NICKEL! I HAVE WORKED WITH HOMELESS PEOPLE WHO ARE WORTH MORE THAN THE CONTENTS OF ANY BOARDROOM. THAT'S WHERE REAL SUCCESS LIES!...BLESSINGS!..:)

Equality and fairness | Report to Admin

By The Bard of Wilmette Oct 19th 2009 at 12:57 pm EDT (Updated Oct 19th 2009 at 12:57 pm EDT)

"The land of opportunity" is not the same as saying "the land of EQUAL opportunity." To find an extreme example of equal opportunity, consider North Korea, where nearly everybody is equally miserable. I do not agree with the notion that equality is the main measure of fairness.

As a matter of public policy, we should try to have a system where everybody has a REASONABLE OPPORTUNITY to succeed. More than anything else, this involves making a good education available to all segments of the society. Even if this goal can be achieved, the children of privilege will still have some advantages, but I do not believe that equality of outcomes should be the goal. It will not help the poor to take down the rich. Around the world, political freedom is generally associated with economic freedom.

Some degree of progressive taxation, which we have, is appropriate. So are social services that enable people with various disadvantages to make use of opportunities that might otherwise exist only in theory. We want the child of poverty to have the opportunity to achieve a better life for himself, but it is the opportunity that is important, not the outcome for every individual.

My point | Report to Admin

By Walt Oct 20th 2009 at 11:18 am EDT (Updated Oct 20th 2009 at 11:18 am EDT)

The point I was trying to make is that some are handicapped by circumstances in making the most of opportunity. Some can overcome initial handicaps and many cannot. We can and should make the playing field more level for the sake of the individuals and for the sake of the rest of us, for society as a whole. We are the losers if some talent fails through no fault of their own.

Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.