Why “Pulling Yourself up by Your Bootstraps” is Bullshit
Society has always loved the underdog story. The “bootstrapping, hard-working, comes from nothing and makes it to the top” kind of life story that gives the impression if we just work hard enough, we too can make it to the top. Really, it’s poverty porn. It takes what can be a traumatic experience and exalts it to a level of almost sainthood, without acknowledging the systemic reasons behind it.
What is the Bootstrap Theory?
The Bootstrap theory (which dates back as far as the 1890’s and was originally a sarcastic statement that meant something was impossible to do) is thrown around a lot in personal finance. People that were once on food stamps now with multi-million dollar real estate portfolios or seven-figure net worth. I love it. Really. Seeing people succeed that had everything stacked against them is one of the best “Fuck You’s!” to systemic oppression. But that’s the thing. It doesn’t address the root cause, which is systemic oppression.
There are so many factors that play a part in someone's financial success beyond work ethic. Things like,
Parents education level
Parents income
Geographic location
Access to education
Access to healthcare
Affordable housing
Equal pay
Access to stable jobs
Affordable childcare
Support systems like family, friends, and community programs
Access to food
Access to reliable transportation
This is not an exhaustive list but you get it.
Time and time again, data shows that all these things play a much larger role in socio-economic upward mobility than just working hard. In an article written for How Stuff Works, David Roos explains,
“In a 2014 video for the Brookings Institution, economist Richard Reeves lays out the bare facts of economic mobility in America with a pile of Lego bricks.
Reeves starts by dividing the bricks into five stacks, each representing a fifth of the income scale. If America were truly the land of equal opportunity, then people born in the bottom fifth would have an equal (20 percent) chance of moving to any of the other income levels as an adult. But it turns out that economic mobility is hugely affected by factors you can't control, like your race or whether your parents were married. Here's a quick summary of the data:
● Equal opportunity is alive for white Americans: Twenty-three percent of whites born in the lowest fifth of the income scale remain in the lowest fifth as adults, but 16 percent make it to the top fifth, close to the "ideal" of even distribution.
● The story is bleaker for black Americans: Fifty percent of blacks born in the lowest fifth will stay there as adults, and only 3 percent will make it all the way to the top.
● Marriage also makes a huge difference. If you are born poor to unwed parents, you have a 50 percent chance of staying at the bottom. But a poor child born to married parents has a 17 percent chance of staying poor and a 19 percent chance of moving all the way up the ladder.”
One person cannot control everything that affects their finances.
There is the mental fuckery that comes along with perpetuating the bootstrap ideology. The focus shifts from the social failings that keep people in poverty to the individual like they have control over housing costs and affordable education. It creates a mindset of, “If I’m failing it’s my fault.” when the reality is that person probably doesn’t make a living wage and doesn’t have access to childcare that isn’t more than a month's rent.
People also love to use poverty as a “character-building” exercise. That people need to struggle and suffer before being successful or to appreciate being successful. That’s a load of bullshit. Financial trauma can be debilitating. Even if you’ve gone from using food stamps to making enough money to not even look at prices at the grocery store, that shit literally changes your neural processes. Trauma changes your DNA and how your nervous system responds to threats, real or perceived. Not being able to afford food is not there to build character. It’s a societal failure that no one should have to go through.
The exceptions are not as common as you’d think.
Are there people who beat the odds? Obviously yes. But not 100% on their own. There is always a break somewhere. Whether that be parents giving financial support for college or having reliable transportation to be able to get to a higher paying job.
Media clings to these stories and perpetuates them over and over to the point that we think they’re the norm when in reality, these stories are the outliers.
In September of 2021, the Census Bureau released updated numbers on income and poverty for 2020. Their findings show that “The real median earnings of all workers aged 15 and over with earnings decreased 1.2 percent between 2019 and 2020 from $42,065 to $41,535.”
If all we have to do is work hard, why does the majority of the US make less than $45,000 a year?
The next time you feel like you're failing or like you can’t get it right no matter how hard you try, remember that there are more things out of your control that impacts you and your progress. You are doing enough. You’re probably doing more than enough honestly. It’s not a failing on you at all. It’s a failing on broken systems and a lack of community support.
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