Michael Kinsley: Mobility Vs. Nobility

Sunday, June 5, 2005; Page B07

According to our founding document and our national myth, we are all created equal, and then it's up to us. Inequality in material things is mitigated in two ways: first, by equal opportunity at the start and, second, by full civil equality despite material differences. We don't claim to have achieved all this, but these are our national goals and we are always moving toward them.

The 20th century added two, somewhat vaguer, elements to the myth. One is that even material inequality will be limited, at the bottom end, by social guarantees against absolute deprivation or vertiginous plunges. Another is that prosperity will gradually make us all more equal even in the material sense.