the American dream?

The American Dream goes like this. Any man or woman, no matter how common, can make pots of money and have a mansion. He or she can rise to the top from the most humble origins and make a mark. So you may be black, you may be raised in N. Philadelphia, you may go to public school, but if you work hard you will rise like a cork in the Dead Sea to the top of the pile.

This is the theory. The practice is different. In America you are more likely to remain within the income group in which you are raised than in almost any other developed country. Only the UK is worse. America is not a meritocracy. Not at all. In fact, it is a land in which the divide between rich and poor is vast and only rarely can one cross. Colleges and universities recruit largely from the affluent middle classes. Government tax breaks for tuition fees benefit the wealthy more than the poor. Incredible but true.

Research confirms this gloomy outlook, but one doesn’t in fact have to look any further than the White House for evidence. Does anyone seriously believe that a man as mediocre, stupid, narrow, and inadequate as Bush could become the most powerful man in the world without vast wealth and influence pushing him up?

If the American Dream ever meant anything, it is a hollow sham now. America is anything but a meritocracy, and America and the world will pay a severe price for this failure of idealism.