"Our research shows that if you want to avoid poverty and join the middle class in the United States, you need to complete high school (at a minimum), work full time and marry before you have children. If you do all three, your chances of being poor fall from 12 percent to 2 percent, and your chances of joining the middle class or above rise from 56 to 74 percent. ..."

Source: "Five Myths About Our Land of Opportunity"
Five myths about social mobility from Isabel V. Sawhill and Ron Haskins of Brookings: http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2009/11/five-myths-about-our-land-of-opportunity.html

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