Several years ago, aspiring presidential hopeful John Edwards spoke about there being “two Americas”. Basically, the gist of his assertion was that there was one America for the rich and one America for the poor. The years since have seen variations on this theme from the 1% vs the rest, rich whites vs poor minorities, the disappearance of the middle class, etc. However, I would posit that the real economic divide in this country is increasingly between those who take life seriously and those who don’t.

In 2009, a Brookings Institution study found that Americans who finished high school, acquired a full-time job and waited until age 21 to get married before having children had a 98% chance of not ending up in poverty and had a 74% chance of ending up in the middle class (defined as more than $50,000). On the other hand, those who violated all three norms had a 76 percent chance of winding up in poverty and a 7 percent chance of winding up in the middle class. Another study a couple of years ago had the factors as finish high school, don’t have kids before marriage, and (married or not) don’t have kids before the age of 21. This one found a 94% chance of not ending up poor if one does all three things.

Not finishing high school is pretty obviously a way to hinder ones job prospects. High school is one of basic building blocks for having even a basic sort of entry level job. However, I believe that the underlying cause of not finishing high school is often a fundamental lack of seriousness. The average standards of the modern public high school are such that maintaining a pulse and simply showing up can often be all that is required to graduate. While a rigorous high school curriculum that one failed to finish could often of course mean that one simply, despite ones best efforts, was not intellectually gifted enough to complete it, the simple fact is that what often passes for a high school curriculum is not terribly difficult. Failing to finish, is often likely due to simply not taking it seriously enough to show up.

As for having kids at a young age or out-of-wedlock, the availability of birth control mitigates against a large number truly accidental births. The fact that over 40% of all live births in the United States in 2012 were out-of-wedlock is simply an indictment. It simply isn’t reasonable to suppose that almost half the births were the result of ‘oops’. Having a child is the most important duty that a civilization and our species assigns. Without children, our species which has survived for millennia can’t continue, and children who don’t grow up as functional adults (as so many children who grow up without fathers don’t) won’t be equipped to allow our civilization to survive either. It is a decision and an act that deserves to be taken seriously, and the over 40% number is an indication that it isn’t.

If people don’t take the decision to finish high school or to establish themselves before having children seriously, it is not a hard stretch to suppose that they don’t take other decisions (getting more education, upgrading their skill set, saving money, managing their money, etc.) seriously either. While simply not ending up poor isn’t the same as saying that one will be rich; not ending up poor is not an unreasonable goal to have. It is hardly surprising that a person who doesn’t put much effort into something (say sports) isn’t going to be very good at it. A person who doesn’t take life seriously isn’t going to be very good at it either, and they are going to continue falling further behind those who do take it seriously. And they deserve to.