[reaperman]

A lot of the people who rise above their economic class lived in those zip codes. One way or another the family was able to get/live in a house they really couldnt afford and were far poorer than the others in that zip code but the children tended to do at least as well as their peers.

[jethro_tell]

Yeah, it turns out that knowing people and knowing people who can tell you what you should be doing is pretty helpful.

Additionally, high income neighborhoods tend to have access to things that aren't available to everyone.

I have the shittiest house in the block but the PTA for my kids school pays 50% of the salary for the school councillor because the district only funds it as a part time gig. Then the robotics, programming and electronics classes, also out on my the PTA.

Things like parent career presentations with rocket scientists and bankers instead of everyday me being a tradesmen like my school. Shit I didn't even know these jobs existed until I was like 30.

And that's before those people come to your graduation party and find out you want to do something that their company does. 'Hit me up after school for a recommendation for an internship'

This is also why public housing projects fail I'm so many ways. Sure you need a place to live, but you also need a stable environment, and access to a social network that can help you along.

[skywal_l]

But maybe you should also be able to live a stable and fulfilling life while being a factory worker or a tradesman. There was a time when that was possible. Not everybody can be a banker or a rocket scientist.

[jethro_tell]

Absolutely, I love building complex technical systems but I'm also an pretty kick ass carpenter and mechanic and I'd probably prefer that to carrying a pager if it was easy to raise a family in the city with either gig.

Even in the projects, getting good trades jobs is a problem, because you don't have that network.

[skywal_l]

Maybe my comment was poorly phrased. What I meant is: we arrived to a point where wealth is so much concentrated that, without connection to the happy few, life is miserable for regular folks. It should not be the case. You should be able to live in a relatively modest neighborhood and still go by because people living around you have enough money to hire you as a plumber or whatever. Working class folks' network is always going to be other working class folks.

Wealth is being concentrated in fewer hands and it is slowly destroying middle-class society fabric which modern liberal* democracy is based on (* as in 18th century liberal).

Not everybody can live in the hamptons.