British economist John Maynard Keynes once said, “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else.” Though Keynes’ original intention was not to stress on education, it indicates that the ruling class is always a small group of well-educated people, regardless of different periods of history in any society.
In the United States, the class of social elites has evolved in a slow way, through generations of accumulations of intellectual capital and wealth. A recent article, “America’s new aristocracy” published by The Economist, states that a country founded on the principles that rejected kings and hierarchical social structure is actually rather tolerant of the political dynasties. Presidents in the past three decades were also born into wealthy and elite families. In the upcoming presidential election, choices of candidates will be expected to have strong family ties with former presidents or presidential candidates.
The article concluded that the children of the rich and powerful are increasingly well suited to earning wealth and power themselves, which is a problem. But the same thing is happening around the world. Kim Jong-il, former dictator of North Korea, sent his son Kim Jong-un to Switzerland to attend high school and college. Of course the Kim family is also the wealthiest and most powerful in North Korea. Many of China’s ruling class have been sending their children to the U.S. for higher education and investing heavily in markets overseas.
These ruling classes behave the same as their counterparts in the U.S. in terms of making decisions in children’s education and accumulating wealth. But the evolution of the ruling class in the U.S. is the most harmful.
Misperception widely exists in the public view of social elites. As the founders established laws and rules based on ideas hostile to inherited status, many successful American elites in history had a hard time from the beginning that most people did not hear and pay attention. Thanks to Hillary Clinton’s intention to run for president, the so-called “Clinton dynasty” was in fact from a very ordinary middle-class family in Arkansas. Bill Clinton was as normal as any high school student back then. People exaggerate the inherited aspects of elites because they don’t perceive that early time and hard work matter in elites’ lives.
When the first generation succeeds and accumulates some wealth, it is perfectly normal that those parents evaluate education as one of the necessary factors leading to any kind of success. They are more likely to send their children to better schools, hire private tutors for special areas and spend more money on career training. That’s why kids from wealthy families have a better chance of receiving better education.
Activists and politicians who care about income and education inequality often complain about the concentration of educational resources. For example, districts with good public schools are usually ideal places for families of wealth and upper middle class to settle, boosting the housing prices and barring the poor from moving in. Given that public schools are usually funded by property taxes, wealthy districts have more resources to put into education. It is not the result of public policy that directs the wealth to gather in one place. The concentration of wealthy residential housing is a result of personal choice. Even if the government directs more resources from one wealthy school to another, it might not necessarily attract high quality teachers there.
As long as the institutions in the U.S. function stably at the beginning, opportunities are still equally open to everyone. The rich aren’t rigging the system so that the poor do not have a chance at climbing the ladder. The successful become rich and powerful because they love what they do and choose a career in that profession. It is still highly possible today for a smart, hardworking kid in a poor community to strive and become an elite member of society, but it takes time.
