WEBVTT 00:02.466 --> 00:05.033 align:left position:10%,start line:71% size:80% JUDY WOODRUFF: But first: Our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, is continuing to chronicle some 00:05.033 --> 00:08.000 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% of the problems with inequality across the country. 00:08.000 --> 00:13.000 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% Tonight, he looks at the possibility of moving up the economic ladder by moving out to other 00:14.266 --> 00:15.500 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% communities. 00:15.500 --> 00:17.700 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% It's part of his weekly series, Making Sense. 00:17.700 --> 00:20.533 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% KRISTEN HOPPER, Mother: I want better for my family. 00:20.533 --> 00:25.400 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: Kristen Hopper expressing the economic motto of America even before the 00:25.400 --> 00:27.533 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% states united. 00:27.533 --> 00:31.766 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% So, you want your kids to do better than you have done? 00:31.766 --> 00:34.033 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% KRISTEN HOPPER: A hundred percent. 00:34.033 --> 00:39.033 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: The 35-year-old mother of four has gone the extra miles to make that happen. 00:41.066 --> 00:44.766 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% With help from the Interfaith Council for Action, a housing nonprofit, she's uprooted 00:44.766 --> 00:49.700 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% her family from hardscrabble Yonkers, New York, where she herself grew up, and has in 00:49.700 --> 00:54.700 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% effect emigrated a mere 20 miles north, but in some respects a world away, to Ossining, 00:56.266 --> 00:58.433 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% New York. 00:58.433 --> 01:01.533 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% Ossining may be home to Sing Sing Prison, where criminals are still sent up the river 01:01.533 --> 01:06.533 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% from New York City, but this is suburbia, a place with far better prospects for 2-year-old 01:08.100 --> 01:11.833 align:left position:20%,start line:77% size:70% twins Robert and Juliet (ph), 10-year-old Josie, 14-year-old Gio. 01:11.833 --> 01:16.833 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% KRISTEN HOPPER: The last place that I lived, it wasn't safe for my kids to walk around 01:17.300 --> 01:18.133 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% in. 01:18.133 --> 01:19.200 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% There was a shoot-out. 01:19.200 --> 01:20.833 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% They have all kinds of gangs. 01:20.833 --> 01:25.233 align:left position:20%,start line:77% size:70% I know that, if I stayed there, my kids would be in the streets too. 01:27.233 --> 01:30.900 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: But instead of the streets, Gio is in after-school clubs, pre-law, pre-business 01:32.033 --> 01:33.833 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% and The Ossining High School Current. 01:33.833 --> 01:36.133 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% GIOVANNI ROSADO, Student: I want to become a lawyer. 01:36.133 --> 01:38.533 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% And I'm trying to work on that. 01:38.533 --> 01:40.866 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: So that you can do better economically? 01:40.866 --> 01:41.866 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% GIOVANNI ROSADO: Yes. 01:41.866 --> 01:43.400 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% Yes. 01:43.400 --> 01:44.966 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: How much better is it for you and for the kids... 01:44.966 --> 01:46.033 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% ROBERT BRUNNER, Fiance of Kristen Hopper: Oh my God. 01:46.033 --> 01:47.033 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: ... to be living... 01:47.033 --> 01:48.300 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% ROBERT BRUNNER: It's amazing. 01:48.300 --> 01:50.433 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% PAUL SOLMAN: Hopper's fiance, Robert Brunner. 01:50.433 --> 01:54.333 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% ROBERT BRUNNER: The safety is 1,000 times different than it is in a hood area. 01:57.200 --> 02:01.333 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% And to fit in, in those places, you have to be rough and tough, and it's a totally different 02:01.333 --> 02:02.633 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% child. 02:02.633 --> 02:04.666 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% It changes the child. 02:04.666 --> 02:08.633 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% PAUL SOLMAN: As it changed Brunner, who did and dealt drugs, like the hallucinogen PCP, 02:09.400 --> 02:10.866 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% angel dust. 02:10.866 --> 02:14.233 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% ROBERT BRUNNER: It's embalming fluid and jet propellant. 02:14.233 --> 02:15.233 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% That's the mix of it. 02:15.233 --> 02:16.600 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% I used to sell it. 02:16.600 --> 02:18.133 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% I used to do all that crap. 02:18.133 --> 02:20.166 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% Craziness. 02:20.166 --> 02:23.333 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: The craziness climaxed when he crashed his car while high, was in a coma 02:23.333 --> 02:25.400 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% for 18 months. 02:25.400 --> 02:27.966 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% ROBERT BRUNNER: My father -- like, when the doctor say, you know, your son has no brain 02:27.966 --> 02:32.966 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% activity, he's -- he won't even be able to function, so then they pull the plug on me. 02:34.600 --> 02:38.100 align:left position:20%,start line:77% size:70% They basically pull it out to see if you can breath on your own. 02:38.100 --> 02:39.100 align:left position:30%,start line:83% size:60% And then, if you do, you're good. 02:39.100 --> 02:41.100 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% And if you don't, you're done. 02:41.100 --> 02:45.100 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: Do you think that a kid as smart as Gio is, would he have been vulnerable to 02:47.266 --> 02:49.366 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% taking angel dust? 02:49.366 --> 02:52.166 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% ROBERT BRUNNER: I think, if the crowd is doing it, I think he would do it. 02:52.166 --> 02:54.233 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% Peer pressure isn't easy, you know? 02:54.233 --> 02:58.533 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: And thus the move upriver, different peers, different pressures. 02:59.300 --> 03:01.333 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% Just ask Gio and Josie. 03:01.333 --> 03:05.433 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% GIOVANNI ROSADO: The people down in Yonkers, they are very mean, in a way. 03:06.166 --> 03:06.966 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% PAUL SOLMAN: Mean? 03:06.966 --> 03:09.000 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% GIOVANNI ROSADO: Yes. 03:09.000 --> 03:12.666 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% They, like, get angry a lot and they like to pick on kids, and I didn't really enjoy 03:13.733 --> 03:15.833 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% that. 03:15.833 --> 03:18.033 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% JOSEPHINA GRAVENESE, Student: And, in Ossining, there's like kids who are like so nice to 03:18.033 --> 03:20.100 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% you. 03:20.100 --> 03:23.833 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% When it was my first day, the kids were asking me like, do you want to play and stuff? 03:23.833 --> 03:25.900 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% It's just not like Yonkers at all. 03:25.900 --> 03:30.666 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: But it could be that the people in Yonkers are as mean as they are, to use 03:32.633 --> 03:35.133 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% your word, because they don't see much of a future for themselves there. 03:35.133 --> 03:36.633 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% GIOVANNI ROSADO: That's true. 03:36.633 --> 03:39.233 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: Where people here do see a future for themselves. 03:39.233 --> 03:40.466 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% GIOVANNI ROSADO: Yes. 03:40.466 --> 03:42.533 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% PAUL SOLMAN: Which is their mom's whole point. 03:42.533 --> 03:46.433 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% KRISTEN HOPPER: I want to show them that in order to be able to live well, and not live 03:48.466 --> 03:52.333 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% paycheck to paycheck, not have to be on social services, not that it's a bad thing -- and 03:54.400 --> 03:58.166 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% I'm grateful for all the help that I have, but I definitely want them to do better than 03:58.166 --> 04:00.266 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% me. 04:00.266 --> 04:03.200 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: Now, some might say that shouldn't be hard in this case, but here's the stark 04:03.200 --> 04:08.200 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% fact that prompted our trip to Westchester: The odds no longer favor American kids doing 04:09.066 --> 04:11.100 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% better than their parents. 04:11.100 --> 04:13.133 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% RAJ CHETTY, Stanford University: It's basically a coin flip at this point. 04:13.133 --> 04:15.066 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% NATHANIEL HENDREN, Harvard University: Yes, it's just a remarkable decline in our country 04:15.066 --> 04:17.200 align:left position:20%,start line:77% size:70% in terms of the fraction of our kids earning more than their parents. 04:17.200 --> 04:21.833 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: Economists Raj Chetty and Nat Hendren study economic inequality, growing 04:23.266 --> 04:25.933 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% in America for decades, as you have so often heard. 04:25.933 --> 04:30.766 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% But inequality itself might not be so bad if we all had a fair shot at the platinum 04:30.766 --> 04:32.033 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% ring. 04:32.033 --> 04:34.133 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% Problem is: 04:34.133 --> 04:36.833 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% NATHANIEL HENDREN: The fraction of kids earning more than their parents has fallen from above 04:36.833 --> 04:39.933 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% 90 percent four decades ago to about 50 percent today. 04:39.933 --> 04:44.933 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: And so people who are worried about this for their kids are right to worry. 04:46.933 --> 04:48.966 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% NATHANIEL HENDREN: Absolutely. 04:48.966 --> 04:50.566 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% It used to be that everybody could count on this, that your kids were going to grow up 04:50.566 --> 04:52.666 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% to earn more than you. 04:52.666 --> 04:54.933 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% And, today, it's not just something that's a feature of the American economy. 04:54.933 --> 04:59.700 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: So what can a poor family with an American dream do to increase the odds 04:59.700 --> 05:00.933 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% of the kids moving up? 05:00.933 --> 05:03.000 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% Move out. 05:03.000 --> 05:06.100 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% NATHANIEL HENDREN: We see that in places where kids of different economic backgrounds are 05:06.100 --> 05:09.866 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% mixing in the same environment, those tend to be places where kids from low-income backgrounds 05:09.866 --> 05:11.900 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% rise up further in the income distribution. 05:11.900 --> 05:16.833 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% PAUL SOLMAN: Kind of like Ossining, where a plaque commemorates Alexis de Tocqueville's 05:16.833 --> 05:18.900 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% visit almost 200 years ago. 05:18.900 --> 05:23.900 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% He wrote: "When inequality is the general rule in society, the greatest inequalities 05:24.933 --> 05:26.400 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% attract no attention." 05:26.400 --> 05:29.100 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% KRISTEN HOPPER: You have some really wealthy people. 05:29.100 --> 05:31.300 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% You have some people in poverty. 05:31.300 --> 05:32.466 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% It's kind of balanced. 05:32.466 --> 05:34.500 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% PAUL SOLMAN: And that helps your kids? 05:34.500 --> 05:36.666 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% KRISTEN HOPPER: Yes, I want them to understand that there is hard life, that there's good 05:36.666 --> 05:38.766 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% life. 05:38.766 --> 05:41.133 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: So they can see the good life, and they see it's attainable you mean? 05:41.133 --> 05:42.200 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% KRISTEN HOPPER: Yes. 05:42.200 --> 05:43.466 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% Of course. 05:43.466 --> 05:45.500 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% Of course, because the reverse is also true. 05:45.500 --> 05:49.400 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% RAJ CHETTY: Places that are more segregated by race or by income tend to have lower levels 05:49.400 --> 05:51.400 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% of upward mobility. 05:51.400 --> 05:55.633 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: Consider inner-city Baltimore, which we visited two years ago, when violence 05:57.066 --> 06:00.666 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% erupted following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody. 06:00.666 --> 06:05.633 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% According to these young ministers-in-training, the near-absence of upward mobility fueled 06:06.366 --> 06:08.366 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% the protesters' anger. 06:08.366 --> 06:10.800 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% MAN: People aren't feeling like they can succeed in life or get above. 06:10.800 --> 06:14.500 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% MAN: It's like we're all living in this dump or this war zone. 06:14.500 --> 06:18.866 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% MAN: Living in the dilapidated areas which they live in, they feel like they're not loved. 06:18.866 --> 06:20.900 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% They feel like they're not cared for. 06:20.900 --> 06:24.166 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% RAJ CHETTY: If you think about what's gone on in Baltimore, it's a place of tremendous 06:24.166 --> 06:26.133 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% concentrated poverty. 06:26.133 --> 06:29.833 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: Chetty and Hendren have looked closely at Baltimore, reanalyzing data from 06:29.833 --> 06:34.833 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% a mid-1990s experiment in which the federal government gave poor families housing vouchers 06:35.833 --> 06:38.200 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% to move to better neighborhoods. 06:38.200 --> 06:40.133 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% Twenty years later: 06:40.133 --> 06:43.766 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% RAJ CHETTY: The kids who moved at young ages are dramatically better as adults. 06:43.766 --> 06:45.833 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% They're earning 30 percent more. 06:45.833 --> 06:50.033 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% They're 27 percent more likely to go to college, something like 30 percent less likely to have 06:50.033 --> 06:55.033 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% a teenage pregnancy, relative to the kids who stayed in the high-poverty public housing 06:55.800 --> 06:57.833 align:left position:30%,start line:89% size:60% projects. 06:57.833 --> 07:01.300 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% And so there's clear scientific evidence that you can dramatically change kids' outcomes 07:01.300 --> 07:03.100 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% just based on where they grow up. 07:03.100 --> 07:05.066 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% PAUL SOLMAN: What does it say on your arm? 07:05.066 --> 07:07.233 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% DESTINY TURTURIELLO, 17 Years Old: "Only the strong survive," in Chinese. 07:07.233 --> 07:12.233 align:left position:20%,start line:71% size:70% PAUL SOLMAN: But back in Yonkers, 17-year-old Destiny Turturiello, a family friend of Kristen 07:13.600 --> 07:15.800 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% Hopper's from the old neighborhood, can't get out. 07:15.800 --> 07:20.800 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% A minor with no legal guardian, she's even having trouble getting back into school, having 07:22.733 --> 07:25.766 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% dropped out when kids bullied her for doing her homework during lunch. 07:25.766 --> 07:27.866 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% She used to give as good as she got. 07:27.866 --> 07:29.300 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% DESTINY TURTURIELLO: If you look at me, just like how you're looking at me now... 07:29.300 --> 07:30.800 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% PAUL SOLMAN: Yes? 07:30.800 --> 07:31.733 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% DESTINY TURTURIELLO: ... I might just fight you two years ago. 07:31.733 --> 07:32.866 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: You would fight me? 07:32.866 --> 07:34.500 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% What do you mean? 07:34.500 --> 07:35.700 align:left position:20%,start line:77% size:70% DESTINY TURTURIELLO: I would just be like, what are you staring at? 07:35.700 --> 07:36.700 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% Is there a problem? 07:36.700 --> 07:39.200 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% And then I would have hit you. 07:39.200 --> 07:42.466 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% And then I would have went about my day, because I feel like I just took my anger out on you. 07:42.466 --> 07:47.133 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: She's learned to manage her anger, but she's still in Yonkers, which has deep 07:47.133 --> 07:51.200 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% pockets of poverty not far from upscale, affluent areas. 07:51.200 --> 07:52.900 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% DESTINY TURTURIELLO: What am I doing with my life? 07:52.900 --> 07:54.766 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% I'm not doing anything productive. 07:54.766 --> 07:57.033 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% What am I going to be later on in life? 07:57.033 --> 07:58.633 align:left position:10%,start line:89% size:80% Am I going to be something? 07:58.633 --> 08:02.333 align:left position:20%,start line:77% size:70% If I could change on living in Yonkers, I would do it 100 percent. 08:02.333 --> 08:07.300 align:left position:10%,start line:71% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: But Turturiello, like millions of other Americans, can't afford to move to 08:07.300 --> 08:09.233 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% a better community. 08:09.233 --> 08:12.466 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% Kristen Hopper only managed with help from benefactors. 08:12.466 --> 08:14.100 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% But finances weren't the only factor. 08:14.100 --> 08:17.266 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% KRISTEN HOPPER: It was hard for me to disconnect from friends. 08:17.266 --> 08:22.166 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% Like, what am I going to do if I have nobody you know? 08:22.166 --> 08:24.400 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% And when I actually did it, many people were shocked. 08:24.400 --> 08:27.166 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% PAUL SOLMAN: Shocked, she says, and resentful. 08:27.166 --> 08:32.166 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% Is the resentment similar to the resentment that so many Americans feel towards people 08:34.200 --> 08:38.766 align:left position:20%,start line:77% size:70% who are just doing much better that they're doing in this economy? 08:38.766 --> 08:41.033 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% KRISTEN HOPPER: I have felt that resentment hard. 08:41.033 --> 08:42.966 align:left position:20%,start line:83% size:70% PAUL SOLMAN: The status distinction. 08:42.966 --> 08:44.600 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% KRISTEN HOPPER: Yes. 08:44.600 --> 08:45.600 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% I did. 08:45.600 --> 08:47.633 align:left position:40%,start line:89% size:50% I did. 08:47.633 --> 08:51.600 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% PAUL SOLMAN: Location, location, location, an old saw in real estate, but one with poignant 08:53.000 --> 08:56.033 align:left position:10%,start line:83% size:80% new pertinence in today's increasingly immobile economy. 08:56.033 --> 09:01.033 align:left position:10%,start line:77% size:80% For the "PBS NewsHour," this is economics correspondent Paul Solman, reporting from 09:01.766 --> 09:02.000 align:left position:20%,start line:89% size:70% Westchester, New York.