Who’s Your Daddy?
By MILES CORAK, NYT
Gus Wenner runs Rollingstone.com; his father gave him the job. But Jann Wenner, the magazine’s co-founder and publisher, was quick to assure critics of the appointment process that his son is terribly talented and had to prove himself before being given the reins. Apparently Gus worked his way up from more junior positions with the company, and demonstrated, according to his father, the “drive and discipline and charm, and all the things that show leadership.” Gus Wenner is 22 years old.
He is certainly not the only kid just out of college, or even out of high school, working at daddy’s firm. Family contacts are a common way of finding both temporary internships and longtime careers. But whether because of blatant nepotism, or a privileged head start in life that nurtures talent and ambition, opportunities for the children of the top 1 percent are not the same as they are for the 99 percent.
This is hardly a shock, but it is precisely the type of inequality that reveals the elusive promise of the “Just Do It” version of the American dream and deepens our cynicism about how people get ahead. As a consequence, it dilutes support for public policies that could address the lack of upward mobility among children born at the bottom, who ought to be given priority.
A strong tie between adult outcomes and family background rubs Americans the wrong way. When the Pew Charitable Trusts conducted a nationally representative poll asking about the meaning of “the American dream,” some typical answers included: “Being free to say or do what you want” and “Being free to accomplish almost anything you want with hard work;” but also “Being able to succeed regardless of the economic circumstances in which you were born.”
(More here.)
Gus Wenner runs Rollingstone.com; his father gave him the job. But Jann Wenner, the magazine’s co-founder and publisher, was quick to assure critics of the appointment process that his son is terribly talented and had to prove himself before being given the reins. Apparently Gus worked his way up from more junior positions with the company, and demonstrated, according to his father, the “drive and discipline and charm, and all the things that show leadership.” Gus Wenner is 22 years old.
He is certainly not the only kid just out of college, or even out of high school, working at daddy’s firm. Family contacts are a common way of finding both temporary internships and longtime careers. But whether because of blatant nepotism, or a privileged head start in life that nurtures talent and ambition, opportunities for the children of the top 1 percent are not the same as they are for the 99 percent.
This is hardly a shock, but it is precisely the type of inequality that reveals the elusive promise of the “Just Do It” version of the American dream and deepens our cynicism about how people get ahead. As a consequence, it dilutes support for public policies that could address the lack of upward mobility among children born at the bottom, who ought to be given priority.
A strong tie between adult outcomes and family background rubs Americans the wrong way. When the Pew Charitable Trusts conducted a nationally representative poll asking about the meaning of “the American dream,” some typical answers included: “Being free to say or do what you want” and “Being free to accomplish almost anything you want with hard work;” but also “Being able to succeed regardless of the economic circumstances in which you were born.”
(More here.)
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