Mobility

Core to our national consciousness is the idea that Americans’ economic, educational, and personal advancement should depend on their effort and ability, rather than on their circumstances at birth.  Where we start out in society should not predetermine where we end up, nor should the country maintain rigid caste lines or perpetuate a privileged class.  Americans rightly see economic and social mobility as central to opportunity and vital to achieving the American Dream.  And their belief in a fair chance at mobility for themselves and their families helps to power their optimism, productivity, and perseverance in tough times as well as prosperous ones.

Because we believe that class distinctions should be surmountable through effort and determination, and that Americans’ human potential is vast, we expect that our nation’s social categories will be fluid and unpredictable, that many people will move up or down the socioeconomic scale over their lifetime, and that families will change their status over generations.  We expect, moreover, that, taken as a whole, our national mobility will be primarily upward, toward greater economic success and human achievement over time.

 The U.S. Constitution reflects this commitment to mobility over caste in its prohibition of titles of nobility or “corruption of blood,” and in its systematic move away from slavery, patriarchy, and the privileges of a landed gentry and toward the guarantees of equal protection of the laws, universal suffrage, and equal privileges and immunities for all Americans.  Mobility nurtures in our people a deep belief in the limitless potential of themselves and their fellow Americans—as Alexis de Tocqueville put it in his 1835 writing Democracy in America, “Equality suggests to the Americans the idea of the indefinite perfectibility of man.”  The experience of the frontier, migration and immigration, the Great Depression, and the post-war rise of the middle class served to galvanize this ideal in our national psyche.

These values are also reflected in our human rights laws.  For example, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination condemns the practices of colonialism, segregation, and apartheid that enforce caste systems and squelch mobility.   And the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man provides that “every person has the right to an education that will prepare him to attain a decent life, to raise his standard of living and to be a useful member of society.”   These provisions stand for the proposition that a fair chance to improve one’s station through hard work and perseverance is the inalienable right of every human being.

Certain societal assets have long served as doorways to mobility.  A quality public education and affordable access to college have helped to catapult generations of Americans from poverty and working-class status into the middle class and sometimes, affluence.  Education, moreover, advances human knowledge and development in ways that go far beyond material wealth, and that benefit society as well as the individual.  Similarly, a decent job at a living wage not only provides economic advancement through salary, savings and freedom from debt, it also provides the leisure time that is essential to creativity, entrepreneurship, and spiritual development.  Home ownership, too, has long been an investment in economic mobility, as well as in strong communities and social networks that aid in broader advancement.  Though more esoteric, tax policy is also key to mobility within our society, as it determines the extent to which wealth will be concentrated and perpetuated within a small group from generation to generation or invested in shared opportunity and prosperity for all.

When our nation has invested in the gateways to mobility—such as universal public education, wage and labor laws, progressive taxes, civil rights enforcement, or the GI Bill—we have taken major strides toward achieving our promise as a land of opportunity.

Equality

All people are created equal in rights, dignity, and the potential to achieve great things.  True opportunity requires that we all have equal access to the benefits, burdens and responsibilities of our society regardless of race, gender, class, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or other aspects of what we look like or where we come from.

Equal opportunity means treating similarly situated people similarly, while taking account of human, cultural, and other differences.  It means, for example, that a person’s race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation should be irrelevant to his or her ability to receive quality health care or to own a home.  It also means, however, that the health care women and men receive should be appropriate to their different needs.  It means considering the needs of Americans who use wheelchairs as well as those who use their feet in designing a home, or a bus or a courthouse.  Expecting Americans who have not yet mastered English to navigate a legal system conducted only in English is not equal opportunity.  Nor is treating Native American tribes—endowed by our Constitution with a sovereign status equal to the 50 states—as if they were just another group of communities.  Equal opportunity is not treating everyone identically but, rather, treating everyone as an equal.

The theme of equality was central to our nation’s founding, with the declaration that “all men are created equal.”  Our country’s history has witnessed the gradual evolution of that core principle from a ruling class that countenanced slavery and subordination toward an egalitarian vision that embraces the inherent equality of all people.  We fought a civil war in part to give life to this proposition.  It is embodied in our Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under law, and in the other Civil War amendments.  And epic social movements of the past two centuries have moved our country, in fits and starts, further still toward the reality of truly equal opportunity.  As Abraham Lincoln said of the Founders’ vision: “They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which should be familiar to all, and revered by all; constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people of all colors everywhere.”

Equal opportunity is also central to the system of international human rights that the United States helped to craft after World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust.  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.”  It goes on to guarantee all people equal protection of the law, equal pay for equal work, equal access to education, equal access to public service, equal rights as to marriage, and an equal right to vote, among other protections.  Virtually every human rights document contains a similar guarantee of equal treatment.  And the conventions on the elimination of racial discrimination and discrimination against women make concrete the affirmative obligations of all nations to provide equal opportunity.  The race convention, for example, requires governments “to review governmental, national and local policies, and to amend, rescind or nullify any laws and regulations which have the effect of creating or perpetuating racial discrimination wherever it exists.”  And it recognizes the need, in some cases, for measures that affirmatively promote the inclusion of members of previously excluded groups “as may be necessary in order to ensure such groups or individuals equal enjoyment or exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

Ensuring equal opportunity in the 21st Century demands a nuanced understanding of the progress that we’ve made as a nation, as well as the nature of contemporary bias and systemic inequality.  It requires understanding, for example, how stereotypes based on gender, race, and other social characteristics can come together in unique ways that require individualized attention—what Shirley Chisolm called, in the case of African-American women, “the twin jeopardy of race and sex…and the psychological and political consequences which attend them.”  It includes the reality that we are all capable of bias and discrimination, including against members of our own group.  And it requires acknowledging and addressing the instances of overt discrimination and bigotry that do remain in our society without believing that those are the only kind of inequality worthy of our attention.

Finally, equal opportunity means not only ending overt and intentional discrimination, but also rooting out subconscious bias and reforming systems that unintentionally perpetuate exclusion.  It requires proactive efforts to remake our institutions in ways that ensure fairness and inclusion.  As the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “with equal opportunity must come the practical, realistic aid which will equip [people] to use it.”

Voice

We embrace democracy as a system that depends on the ability of all of us to participate, debate, and have real ownership in the public dialogue.  This means not only the right to vote and freedom from censorship, but also affirmative opportunities to communicate, to participate in the decisions that affect us, and to be part of the social and cultural life of the nation.

The chance to contribute our views and perspectives, and to have them heard and respected, is essential to our ability to achieve our full potential—as individuals, and as a nation.  A democracy loses its legitimacy when it is responsive to just a few powerful interests.  And its members cannot be expected to shoulder the full share of their responsibilities without a respected role in the governance of their society.

Today, the means for having a voice in our society include the town hall, newspaper and voting booth, and also the broadcast media, Internet, and other vehicles of which the founders of our nation never dreamed.  Ensuring a diverse, inclusive, and vibrant American voice, moreover, requires attention and involvement by government, as well as vigilance and responsible stewardship by corporations, organizations, and others in the society.  Government, for example, must work to create and preserve forums for public discourse, as well as access to those forums.  It must prevent restriction or monopolization of communication channels by public or private parties, and actively promote the ability of diverse voices to be heard.  It must understand the cultures and languages of newcomers, as well as long-established communities and indigenous peoples, and invest in democratizing technologies and spheres that we once considered wholly private.

It is tempting to think of our voice in the national discourse solely in terms of individual choice—that is, did a person choose to vote, to run for office, or to speak her mind, and did anyone directly stand in her way.  But the choices that we make as a society profoundly affect our people’s opportunity to be heard.  A person’s opportunity to vote, for example, is affected by factors like the ease or difficulty of registering, by the availability of well-functioning and well-staffed voting places in all communities, by whether Election Day is a work day or a holiday, by the extent to which monied interests are allowed to dominate politics, and by whether a youthful criminal conviction is a permanent bar to voting.  A worker’s ability to advocate for better working conditions depends on protecting her right to band together with others in a union and her freedom from retaliation for doing so.  A child’s access to arts education will affect her potential for creative expression throughout her life.  And a society’s ability to debate the issues of the day depends on diverse perspectives and experiences reflected in the media.

These principles are reflected in our nation’s seminal documents, from the 1st Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech and assembly, to the 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments’ enfranchisement of American adults irrespective race, gender, or age.  They have been concretized in laws like the Voting Rights Act, the Help America Vote Act and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which promote meaningful participation in our electoral process, and the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, which created the Public Broadcasting System to promote a diverse and inclusive public voice in the affairs of the nation. 

These same principles are embodied in a range of human rights documents: Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” Article 27 provides: “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.” Article 21 provides that “Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives,” and that “Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.”  And Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights provides that “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and join trade unions for the protection of his interests.”

Building a true land of opportunity in which voice is a crucial element requires understanding the changing demographics of our nation, the changing technologies that help and hamper communication, and the practical barriers to full electoral and civic participation.  It requires innovative policies that throw open doors and harness the best of what technology has to offer.  And it requires listening to the ideas, hopes and dreams of all Americans.

Redemption

People grow and change over time in response to their circumstances, and those who falter in their efforts or break societal rules warrant the chance for reconciliation, rehabilitation, and a new start.  Redemption as an element of opportunity means providing the conditions that allow people to develop, to rebuild and to take full responsibility for their lives after misfortune or mistakes.  It means using effective rehabilitative approaches that are appropriate and proportionate to a person’s conduct and circumstances. It means recognizing that rehabilitation is an often-rocky road that requires patience and compassion as well as swift and steady intervention.  And it means rejecting the principle of retribution, which is punishment as revenge.  The ideal of redemption, moreover, is especially powerful when it comes to children, who have virtually unlimited potential to develop and change with age and experience, and who are, by their nature, less responsible for their circumstances and in their behavior. 

Redemption is a value held by virtually all of the world’s religions, which recognize the almost limitless potential for human improvement and change.  It is reflected in our Constitution, which requires proportional treatment of misconduct.  And it is embodied in human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides that “the penitentiary system shall comprise treatment of prisoners the essential aim of which shall be their reformation and social rehabilitation,” and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which provides that “the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time,” and that “every child deprived of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a manner which takes into account the needs of persons of their age.”

This value applies not only to crime and misconduct, but also to the chance we all need to start over after misfortune or disaster.  We all grapple occasionally with forces beyond our control and, from time to time, need to begin life anew.  Having the room and support to do so is central to opportunity.

Redemptive policies treat problems of drug addiction and mental illness through public health responses designed to help people conquer those problems.  They emphasize approaches like job retraining and bankruptcy protection that help people recover after loss or dislocation.  They view incarceration as an opportunity-ending event that should be a last resort, and use restorative approaches that address the harms caused by misconduct.  They consider and address the impact of destructive behavior on individuals, families and communities.  And they realize that denying fundamental rights like the right to vote, to housing, and to education based on past misconduct is contrary to the goal of a return to productive citizenship.

Community

We are responsible for each other as well as for ourselves and recognize that the strength of our nation springs from the unity of our diverse people. We are all in it together as Americans and human beings, not competitors or independent agents.

A strong and cohesive sense of community is essential to expanding opportunity for all.  When we care about the progress of all members of our society, opportunity is no longer just about personal success but also about our success as a people. This ideal is embodied in the motto E Pluribus Unum—“from many, one”—that John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson proposed for the first Great Seal of the United States in 1776.  It symbolizes both the American resolve to form one nation from a collection of states, and our determination to forge one unified country from people of different backgrounds and beliefs.  Our enduring national commitment to seeking unity while respecting diversity is crucial to our progress as a nation.

The interdependence of community and opportunity is also expressed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.”  It is only through our relationships with other members of society that we can achieve our own aspirations and protect our own rights.  This is the notion of mutuality or “the interrelatedness of all communities and states” described by Martin Luther King, Jr.; the idea that “whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly,” and that ”injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”  Indeed, it is a central teaching of virtually all of the world’s major religions, expressed most familiarly in Western culture as “love thy neighbor as thyself.”

The value of community goes beyond the notion of assimilation—which usually means expecting newcomers and others with differing cultures to adapt to the dominant culture and give up their own.  Instead, it embraces mutual respect, diversity, and integration, which mean learning from each other’s experiences and beliefs to build a common and evolving national character.  As people who came here from other lands—some as immigrants, some in chains, and some as the first indigenous settlers of untamed wilderness—our national commitment to welcome new generations is a personal, as well as political, expression of community.

We all benefit in different ways from being Americans, and we all must contribute our fair share to the larger society as well as to our own pursuit of happiness.  That sometimes means that those of us who have benefited most from being part of the American venture must give back the most, sharing our national prosperity with those who have benefited the least.  It means willingly sharing the risks, burdens and advantages of making America work.  It also means remembering that our national embrace of human rights and fundamental freedoms is based not on hostility toward government but on hostility toward the excesses of government.  And that there are certain things—from public transportation to national defense, from protecting human rights to providing healthcare for all—that we simply cannot do on our own, whether as individuals or as individual cities, states, or corporations.

We fought and won a bloody civil war to preserve the unity of our nation and to forge a new respect for the diversity within it.  We passed the Fourteenth Amendment to our Constitution to make plain that we belong to one nation, indivisible, and share the same rights, privileges and immunities.  Our greatest progress in expanding opportunity has come when we have united as a nation to address problems like economic depression, unconscionable labor practices, and bigotry with national solutions like social security, workplace protections and human rights policies.  Those lessons must inform our future efforts to pursue the American Dream for all.

Finally, community is about the connections, rights and responsibilities that we have as citizens of the world as well as members of its most powerful nation.  Those ties obligate us to search for solutions that move us forward together rather than pitting us against each other.  If, as the Universal Declaration states, “recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,” it is incumbent upon us always to seek common ground.

Security

All people must have access to the means to provide for their own basic needs and those of their family.  There is a minimum level of healthcare, housing, physical and environmental safety, and other protection below which no one must be allowed to fall.

Security is vital to our human dignity.  There are few things as demeaning as being denied the ability to properly feed, clothe, or house oneself, and few things as frightening as the inability to provide for the health, welfare, and safety of one’s family.  Struggling against countless, insuperable barriers to security can sap the human spirit as surely as insecurity itself.  As Cesar Chavez once said of himself and his fellow farmworkers, “We are men and women who have suffered and endured much, and not only because of our abject poverty but because we have been kept poor.”

Without a foundation of economic stability and safe and healthy living conditions, it is nearly impossible for people to access the other opportunities that society has to offer, or to shoulder all of society’s responsibilities.  A child who is hungry, ill or living in dangerous conditions will find it hard to excel academically or socially.  And her parents, weathering the same challenges, will find it hard to thrive at work or at home, or to participate in the democratic and civic life of the nation.

Security for all is one of the first responsibilities of government.  In the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “we cannot be content, no matter how high [our] general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.”  That governmental duty is greatest at times of economic upheaval and transition, when the knowledge and skills on which people have relied for decades no longer provide the security that they once did, and when the concentration of great wealth is most likely to come at the expense of working and poor people. Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of our Constitution, recognized this responsibility, writing in 1785: “The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on.  If for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be provided to those excluded from the appropriation. If we do not, the fundamental right to labour the earth returns to the unemployed.”

Ensuring that all Americans have the tools to meet their basic needs is part and parcel of our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The lack of affordable housing, healthcare, and other economic rights threatens and, too often, takes the lives of tens of thousands of Americans.  For millions more, debilitating poverty hampers their exercise of liberty in many aspects of life.  As President Roosevelt said in his 1944 State of the Union address, “we have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.”  The relationship between security and the pursuit of happiness should be self-evident; it is not that material wealth brings happiness, but that a minimum level of economic and social stability is necessary if we are fully to enjoy our lives.

A large body of human rights law recognizes the right of every human being to social and economic security.  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example, provides that “everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.” The Universal Declaration goes on to guarantee everyone “the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

Human rights principles also recognize that a society’s progress in providing social and economic security to its members depends in part on that society’s resources.  Human rights laws thus call for the “progressive realization” of economic and social rights by each nation “to the maximum of its available resources.”