Hillbilly Elegy

that Yale Law School shouldn’t accept
applicants from non-prestigious state
schools. There’s no way to quantify how
these attitudes affect the working class.
We do know that working-class
Americans aren’t just less likely to
climb the economic ladder, they’re also
more likely to fall off even after they’ve
reached the top. I imagine that the
discomfort they feel at leaving behind
much of their identity plays at least a
small role in this problem. One way our
upper class can promote upward
mobility, then, is not only by pushing
wise public policies but by opening their
hearts and minds to the newcomers who
don’t quite belong.