The worst thing poor whites are inheriting could be a lack of hope
“Inequality between the rich and poor in the United States is not just about the dollars and cents in people’s bank accounts. Sometimes, the more powerful factor in people’s futures is not how much money they grew up with, but the expectations they were taught to have. Carol Graham, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who studies happiness and well-being, argues that inequality shapes people’s hopes and beliefs about the future, and that those perceptions are passed down to future generations just as surely as an inheritance would be. Today, 62 percent of Americans think their children will be worse off than they are. In a new book, ‘Happiness for All?: Unequal Lives and Hopes in Pursuit of the American Dream,’ Graham argues that people’s hopes about the future often end up being self-fulfilling. Those who believe in their future are more likely to invest in it. For poor people with little time and money to spend on building a better future, hope and optimism are even more important.”