Herbert Hoover Quotes

Slowly but surely the old establishment is being replaced by a new, larger, more meritocratic middle class—a middle class that will include millions of people who traditionally may see themselves as working class but whose ambitions are far broader than their parents and grandparents.

Outside of the family, education is the greatest determinant of social mobility.

Class is not a fixed designation in this country. We are an upwardly mobile society with a lot of movement between income groups.

Every thing is moving and changing. Persons in poverty, are rising to opulence, and persons of wealth, are sinking to poverty.

Upward mobility across classes peaked in the U.S. in the late 19th century. Most of the gains of the 20th century were achieved en masse; it wasn't so much a phenomenon of great numbers of people rising from one class to the next as it was standards of living rising sharply for all classes. You didn't have to be exceptional to rise.

One of the nicest things about receiving the accolade of Australia is that, previously, the knighthood was historically for what was termed 'the establishment.' Now, this is an accolade for somebody who comes from a working-class background. Someone whose father was a truck driver and decided to buy a truck.

John Edwards comes from working folk, just like me. John Edwards worked hard and excelled to get his education, just like me.

Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having their own racial or ethnic leaders to follow.

Americans have so far put up with inequality because they felt they could change their status. They didn't mind others being rich, as long as they had a path to move up as well. The American Dream is all about social mobility in a sense - the idea that anyone can make it.

You see, as Americans we're not defined by class, and we will never be told our place. What makes our nation exceptional is that anyone, from any background, can climb the highest of heights.

Mr. Lincoln's elevation shows that in America every station in life may be honorable; that there is no barrier against the humblest; but that merit, wherever it exists, has the opportunity to be known.

I never considered the working class anything other than something to get out of.

I still consider myself working class. I know my circumstances have changed dramatically since I was growing up back in Birkenhead.

I don't know how you can move out of one's socioeconomic category if you don't have education.

Somehow in the public sector, if you start in the mailroom and spend your life getting promoted, it's unseemly.

In the States everyone aspires to be middle class. It's so engrained into the American psyche: As long as you work hard you're going to be rich some day. The history of Britain is that if you're born working class, you're going to stay there, although that is changing.

My parents were the first in our family to go to grammar school. My grandparents were in service.

Human beings are no longer born to their place in life

Brahmins cannot hope to claim a high and superior status forever. Times are changing. They have to come down.

The charm of Britain has always been the ease with which one can move into the middle class.

The upwardly mobile American is becoming a statistical oddity..

College education is the engine of social mobility in this country.

One of the basic tenets of the working class is you want to get out of the working class.

As America has grown less economically equal, a citizen's ability to move upward has fallen behind that of citizens in other Western democracies. We are no longer the country where anyone can become anything.

As the 20th century unspooled, a cultural warming melted down many frozen class characteristics.