It's So Much Harder to Escape Poverty Than You Might Think—It Can Take Decades and an Incredible Streak of Good Luck

In order to get out of poverty, you have to basically be extremely lucky for almost 20 years, according to a new book The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy, by economist Peter Temin.

So many deep-seeded factors have lead to the economic and wealth inequality in the U.S. today (from slavery through to the new Jim Crow prisons crisis of today, to technological shifts, to globalization, corporatization and so much else) that few Americans stand a realistic chance of ever changing their economic status....
http://www.alternet.org/economy/getting-out-poverty-means-making-zero-mistakes-almost-20-years-america