An edited sample of online comments in response to Jeff Jacoby’s May 29 column on upward mobility:

I have no doubt that there is significant mobility, especially for those who strive and get themselves a STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] education. Even so, the Dr. Pangloss narrative that Jacoby echoes here doesn’t seem to [account for] global competition. (WilliamSlim1944)

A STEM education does not create wealth. The only thing that reliably creates wealth is access to capital. In other words, if you want to make money, have money. Both my wife and I worked very hard but have little to show for that. My retired father gave us a down payment for real estate from his stock appreciation. The real estate has quadrupled in value. That is how you acquire wealth in America. (MNMoore)

I can’t think of a place with more opportunity than the US, and the “footsteps’’ prove it, as immigrants come here to seek opportunity. And Jacoby is exactly right when he says “individuals who finish high school, marry before having children, don’t engage in criminal activity, and work diligently have a very high likelihood of achieving success.’’ For some reason liberals just don’t get that, or they just don’t want to admit to it. (TheVastConspirator)

It’s a nice cop-out from responsibility for right-wing class warfare to say the destruction of the middle class had nothing to do with our policies. It was obvious in 1980 what mindless tax cuts, deregulation, union busting, offshoring, and peddling of the “Government is the problem’’ approach would do. Results have been exactly as expected: redistribution of [wealth] to the top, and transformation of our great middle-class society into a plutocracy. (beaconhillr)