The Mantra of Individual Responsibility – holding us back?

Nov 5, 2022 | Upward Mobility Signals

Heidi Selberg, Board Member Envision Greater Green Bay

Research on upward mobility shows that other western countries have greater rates of upward mobility than the United States.  This is often attributed to those countries’ policies of offering more plentiful social supports.  Further, it’s often asserted that the culture of personal responsibility and self-reliance in the United States is a significant barrier to providing the kinds of social supports present in other countries. 

A front-page article in the Sunday, October 9, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel outlines this argument through a healthcare lens.  It’s surprising to see this position outlined in a major daily newspaper–one that is the largest and considered to be the most influential newspaper in Wisconsin.  Healthcare reporter Guy Bolton and reporting intern Alexa Jurado discuss the impact of constrained resources on health. They note the difference in public support for high-tech treatments versus the cost of providing safe and stable housing, and the growing view of healthcare leaders that more needs to be done to provide social supports. Read the full article here.

Redefining Poverty in the United States

Jul 4, 2022 | Upward Mobility Signals

Heidi Selberg,  Envision Board member

Earlier this year, the WBUR program “On Point” discussed poverty in the United States.  The guests and their key points are outlined below.  It’s remarkable that the points made so compellingly by sociologist Mark Robert Rank were outlined in a book published in 2004 and have received so little public discussion since. A key such point is that the majority of adults in the US will experience poverty as defined by the Federal Poverty Level during their lifetimes.  This has important implications for any work designed to address poverty or upward mobility, as poverty is not experienced by a fixed group of people who need to work their way out of the situation.  Rather, it is experienced widely.

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Is US Race and Ethnicity Really Changing?

Oct 30, 2021 | Upward Mobility Signals

Heidi Selberg, Envision Board Member

Recent news reports about the changes in the racial composition of the US and their relation to the race/ethnicity questions on the census form have generated some confusion.  Are the reported changes in the country’s racial composition a real transition, or are they simply a result of the change in the way the questions were worded? Let’s find out.

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