A broken promise

For generations, any American willing to work hard could escape poverty. That's no longer true.

Baltimore
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
William Falk
By
published

I am the product of generations of upward mobility. My mother's father was an orphan who was raised by relatives in Little Italy and never attended high school. He and my grandmother nonetheless forged a frugal, middle-class life through hard work — he as a fruit-and-vegetable buyer, she as a seamstress in a sweatshop. My father's parents came from Sweden with nothing, and clawed out a livelihood with decades of factory work, floor scrubbing, and milk delivery. Because there was no money, my father bypassed college when he returned from World War II and took a $24-a-week job as a bank teller. Throughout my childhood, he periodically came home with news of promotions and raises; by the time I was 18, he could proudly send me to college.

Thanks to all of my forebears, and the implicit promise that drew millions of people like them to this country, I began life with ample opportunity. Freddie Gray, born into a world of drugs and chaos and brain-damaged by lead as a child, never had a chance.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
William Falk
William Falk

William Falk is editor-in-chief of The Week, and has held that role since the magazine's first issue in 2001. He has previously been a reporter, columnist, and editor at the Gannett Westchester Newspapers and at Newsday, where he was part of two reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes.

Latest