Bootstraps Are So Passé

Let’s Talk Footwear

Before the era of the 1%, most individuals with a fortune earned his or her way in the same manner as Christian Louboutin – with footwear! More specifically with boots featuring straps. Everybody, no matter how rich or how poor, had a pair of cowboy boots in their closet. It was with that pair of boots that everybody was expected to make their way in the world. Do you need to eat? Better pull on your bootstraps and find a job. Do you have a sick child but no health insurance? You should probably pull on your bootstraps, raise your credentials immediately and find a job with better benefits before your kid dies. Want to borrow a pair of your friend’s cute nude-colored slingbacks? Forget about it. Pull on your bootstraps and earn enough money to buy your own pair!

Conservatives often lament that you hardly ever even see bootstraps in shop windows anymore, let alone on actual people. Yet the real reason that you never see bootstraps anymore is because they are primarily found on cowboy boots – and we are no longer a nation of Thomas Jefferson’s beloved yeoman.

Let’s Talk Numbers

Popular styles only make sense in the context in which they’re presented. Femininity was idolized in the 1950s so we saw the rise in the cinched-waist poodle skirt. In the late 1960s, acid became increasingly popular and stringent organization less so, resulting in the unfortunate rise in popularity of tie-dye. The 1990s saw a generation that was aimless and angry and liked punk rock; ergo combat boots.

We need to similarly start tailoring expectations for success to the way the world is today. According to Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, one percent of the American population owns about 40% of the nation’s wealth while only owing about 5% of the nation’s debt.  A study conducted by the Social Security Administration concluded that those in the top-earning bracket are expected to live 5-7 years longer than those at the bottom earning brackets. People who still believe in the flawed American ethos of meritocracy will probably assert that those bottom-earners have nobody to blame for the situation but their own lack of hard work. After all, they should have just pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.

Yet we can’t all do that, and it’s irresponsible to mandate that we do. The 2010 census reported that 21% of American children live in poverty, and additionally that white Americans have over 20 times more wealth than Latino and black Americans, even after adjusted for population size. These differences have real impact – you can’t change your race or what economic class you’re born into.

Let’s Talk Hypothetically

Let’s say that, hypothetically, the majority of Americans who argue for a pure meritocracy are white, economically well off, and relatively oblivious to how the majority of Americans live.

Let’s say, hypothetically, that those same Americans refuse to acknowledge how much the success of their parents impacted their own ability to achieve success. They may also not understand that not everybody inherits money or a home from their parents, or that some people must go to college entirely on loans. These kinds of Americans forget that they were an investment. Their individual success was the dividend.

Let’s say that, hypothetically, those who wholeheartedly believe in the American meritocracy tend to also be those who believe that Christianity should be the standard by which all legislative propositions are measured. It’s a general consensus that Jesus Christ was all for the redistribution of wealth. Loaves and fishes, anybody?

Let’s say that, hypothetically, a lot of the arguments for pulling oneself up by the bootstraps are evident of the established structural violence and institutionalized racism. People who hear the statistics about minorities and wealth and still argue for “meritocracy” believe that the minorities are to blame for their socioeconomic status. Hypothetically.

Let’s Talk Real Talk

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for wearing boots with bootstraps. I understand that hard work often can, and usually does, pay off. I understand that I should try and earn what I have. However, I also understand that I am fortunate enough to have parents who could afford to provide me with good health care, a safe home, and opportunities for a stellar education. I understand that no matter how hard I work, I am also ultimately lucky.

Deciding that 47% of Americans are greedy and selfish because they can’t afford to feed themselves or provide their children with medical treatment on their own is unconscionable. Deciding that 47% of Americans need to change into boots because of a refusal to comprehend how the world looks today is much more than a crime against fashion. It’s a crime against the country.