America is the world's richest country, but that wealth is very unevenly distributed. When Katrina struck, the glossy veneer was stripped off, and the rest of the world could see the reality behind the glitz. It wasn't pretty. America sustains much of its wealth on the backs of illegal immigrants or poor blacks who live and work in third world poverty. These were the people who suffered in New Orleans, who will suffer for years to come. The state won't look after them once the eyes of the world turn away again. This lack of compassion, this exploitation, is justified by the American Dream in which everyone has the potential to rise up from poverty and become a millionaire. Yet social mobility in the USA is very low, because this underclass has little education and hence little opportunity. With my liberal European outlook I would find it hard to live in America, knowing what underpinned my prosperity.
But just when I was feeling all smug in my comfortable anti-Americanism, I found that the UK keeps the US company at the bottom of the social mobility scale. My experience suggests that our divide is less racial and more class based, but I don't suppose that that is any comfort to those who suffer from it.
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