Kristof Reading- Blog 1

U.S.A., Land of Limitations?

Nicholas Kristof



I found the reading, "U.S.A., Land of Limitations?" by Nicholas Kristof very interesting. He talks about how the wealth someone is born into is usually a big factor for how wealthy they grow up to be. Kristof talks about one of his childhood friends, Rick Goff. 
Rick was born into a family with not much money and Kristof says that Rick basically raised himself and his three siblings. Rick never excelled in school because his Attention Deficit Disorder was never diagnosed and he dropped out of school by the tenth grade. Rick had enough money to get by usually but did not seem to have any extra. This story was really sad and made me emotional. If Rick’s ADD has been diagnosed, he could have been given the extra help and attention he needed to excel in school and in turn could have gone to college and been given the opportunity to get a well-paying job but it seems like Rick’s family never had the funds to go to a doctor and have him tested. I have ADHD and I know that without the extra help provided to me by my family and my school, academics would have been much more difficult for me. 
"A child born in the bottom quintile of incomes in the United States has only a 4 percent chance of rising to the top quintile, according to a Pew study" (Kristoff 2). The above statistic really shows that how much  money a person is born into can determine how much money they will make as an adult. Someone who was born into a very poor family can get amazing grades throughout their entire academic career and when it comes time to go to college, they realize that they cannot afford it and that limits their job opportunities and the amount of money they will make in their life. This can happen again with that person’s children and it is a cycle. “Consider that 77 percent of adults in the top 25 percent of incomes earn a B.A. by age 24. Only 9 percent of those in the bottom 25 percent do so” (Kristof 4). Kristof discusses how 68% more people in the top 25% of incomes earn a bachelor degree by the age of 24 and this percentage is much too high. I believe that when college becomes more affordable, the percentage will lessen and more people will be given chances in life.

Comments

  1. Alison KleinebreilFebruary 10, 2019 at 8:04 PM

    I really enjoyed reading your blog. I like how you opened up and talked about your struggles with ADHD and how it has impacted you and how the people around you have helped. I too felt bad for Rick when I was reading this article because he was not given the tools that would have helped him be so much more successful!

    -Ali Kleinebreil

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