11. Economists: Your Parents Are More Important Than Ever

            Thompson opens his article by saying that social mobility in America is actually “social immobility.” He says how even if students have a great shot at moving up their income, most fail to do so. Around 8% of kids born in the 1980’s to the country’s least-earning families actually managed to make it to reach the top level of earnings today. Most people’s location on the economic ladder depends on where they’re born. This means a child’s future is greatly determined by their parents’ economic status. The income of parents is the first thing that influences a child. Rich parents’ kids are 80% more likely to go to college than those of poor parents. Also, teenage girls from poor families are 37% more likely to get pregnant than those from rich families. The second thing that determines a child’s future is their parents’ marriage (or living arrangement). Children of married parents have a greater probability of getting ahead than children of single parents. Thompson, however, also states that rich single parents’ kids tend to be richer than poor married couple’s kids. This does mean that low-income parents have even lower-income kids, who are more likely to become single parents and raise their children in that same way.  The third determinant is that parents decide where their child lives, and opportunities vary greatly from place to place. He then explains how it is easier for people to raise their income in cities such as Salt Lake City or San Francisco rather than Atlanta or Charlotte. He ends with David Wessel’s summary of the report: "Though mobility hasn’t worsened, inequality has. Winning the birth lottery matters more than ever."

Derek Thompson, a senior editor at The Atlantic wrote about the economy and how parents are important for a child’s economic future. The article was informational and he explained 3 ways about how parents determine their child’s future economically. He uses data information to add credibility to his article. He also included a map of the United States showing the areas in which it is easier or harder to grow in the economic ladder. His diction is informal to make it easy for all readers to understand the information presented. He ended in a very strong way using a summary of the report by David Wessel (American writer and journalist). This causes the reader to remember everything he just read and make his own conclusions about it.  

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/economists-your-parents-are-more-important-than-ever/283301/