Born on Third Base Part I

The book Born on Third Base explores deeply about the social inequality in the U.S. society. The author Chuck Collins incorporated his own experience of born into the one percent, taking advantage of his family privilege, realizing the inequality in society, and dedicating himself into the “revolution” of preserving the estate tax to explain the importance of equality in many aspects. Personally, I admire his courage a lot, although I have nothing in common with him, born into a family that is neither at the top nor at the bottom. 

In the first half of the book from Chapter One to Chapter Nine (the first three parts), the idea that “many of the people who have huge advantages don’t even know it” makes me consider myself and my family’s status in society again. In fact, I have never thought of this question on a scale of the whole society. I have always believed that everybody around me, at least, are similar. We were born into families of similar statuses, and we are at similar ages with similar concerns. However, the book opens up my vision that there are many young adults like us on this planet are suffering from poverty, war, diseases, and we should care about them. Meanwhile, I am taking advantages of my family wealth and networks all the time since I was born. 

Besides, I also like the idea of “intergenerational transmission of advantage,” which reveals how the advantages for the wealthy accelerates and how the disadvantages for everyone else compounds. Because of the transmission, the gap between the wealthy and the poor becomes even larger with an increasing speed, which might lead to a fragmentation or a collapse of society as a whole someday. As an international student from China, I see this phenomenon not only in the U.S. but also in China. So, it is important for our young adults to understand this social transmission and take some actions to make some potential changes to the future. 

Also, the book points out a psychological misbelief that people tend to credit their achievement to their hardworking, intelligence, and creativity other than the social benefits, which include the fundamental infrastructure, governmental regulations, public services, political stability, and special subsidies. So, the most important thing to do right now is to make people recognize that whatever they have already accomplished is the benefits given by society, in other words, other people. Moreover, we should engage in the social evolvement now and see ourselves as a part rather than the counterpart of or the opposite to other people.