Forty-five percent of black children whose parents were solidly middle class in 1968 — a stratum with a median income of $55,600 in inflation-adjusted dollars — grew up to be among the lowest fifth of the nation’s earners, with a median family income of $23,100. Only 16 percent of whites experienced similar downward mobility. At the same time, 48 percent of black children whose parents were in an economic bracket with a median family income of $41,700 sank into the lowest income group.
This troubling picture of black economic evolution is contained in a package of three reports being released today by the Pew Charitable Trusts that test the vitality of the American dream. Using a nationally representative data source that for nearly four decades has tracked people who were children in 1968, researchers attempted to answer two questions: Do Americans generally advance beyond their parents in terms of income? How much is that affected by race and gender?
“We are attempting to broaden the current debate” beyond the growing gap between higher- and lower-income Americans, said John Morton, Pew’s managing director for program planning and economic policy. “There is little out there on the question of mobility across generations, and we wanted to examine that.”
Update: An AP article is here.
Without reading the articles: In 1968, the large majority of black American families consisted of a married mother and father with children. How much of the drop into poverty is accounted for by the huge increase in illegitimacy and single-mother-led families in this group today? The black middle-class families in my NC neighborhood are, like the “white” ones and the Vietnamese one, married couples with children.
In 1968 30% of black children were born out of wedlock.
Today it’s 70% or more. There isn’t any need for a study except if you wish to persuade people that isn’t the main cause of the problems.