middle class. That has pretty much been the point of the economic mobility (or lack thereof) studies that I have seen. We focus a lot on the 1% being born on third base. Well the next 10% were born on second or at least first. I include myself and most of my friends from Alabama in that. We grew up with enough money that our parents could help send us to college and with enough influence and connections (especially if you stayed home, it is harder leaving the nest) to get a decent job afterwards. We were, most of my friends anyway, also white and that helped, too, particularly in the south but elsewhere as well. (A good example is to look at reasons for the existence for the Green Book and to think about how the mobility restrictions that people of color experienced in the '40's through at least the '60's impacted their ability to seek out new opportunities in different parts of the country.)

I'm not saying hard work isn't important. I'm not saying that parenting doesn't influence things. I'm saying that structural inequalities play at least an equal, if not a larger, role in outcomes.