Most Missouri babies will grow up poorer than their parents. That doesn’t have to be | Opinion
The majority of babies born today will grow up to be poorer than their parents. That wasn’t always the case. If you were born in 1940, there was a 95% chance you’d grow up to be richer than your parents. These two statistics together tell a sad tale about what is happening to the American dream.
But it’s not just an abstract idea like the American dream that is in trouble. It’s the people of Missouri. It’s our neighbors.
Missouri’s median income is already $8,000 below the national average, and our job growth between now and 2030 is projected to be less than 1%. That puts us 45th out of the 50 states. This economic crisis has terrible social consequences. To take just one example, 95% of Missourians live in counties with worse mental health than average — but at the same time we’re in the bottom third of states for number of mental health providers per person.
It’s time we started reckoning with the fact that there is less opportunity and more suffering here than we would like to believe. Because if we are realistic about the present, we have a chance to change the future for our state.
There are great organizations working toward solutions in one region of Missouri or another. But the lack of opportunity threatens communities in every corner of the state. It limits the prospects of big cities, small towns and everywhere in between. It affects people of all races and ethnicities.
So Missourians need to launch a statewide movement to address the root causes of downward mobility. That’s why, today, a small coalition of donors is announcing Upward Momentum, a fund supported by local philanthropists who love their home state and want Missourians to have a fair shot at a good life.
Upward Momentum is starting with three founding philanthropies — the Clever Little Girl Foundation, the James S. McDonnell Foundation, and Missouri Foundation for Health — and it welcomes other funders. This coalition isn’t about any one person’s ideology or approach. It’s about pooling resources from concerned Missourians to spread what works across our state.
We’re kicking off the work with two practical, proven investments.
Kids Win Missouri is helping families in Kansas City, St. Louis and other communities with critical child care needs. The first investment supports Kids Win Missouri to help parents throughout the state get affordable child care. This is good for kids, who can get great care. It will be good for families, because they can stop spending an average of one-quarter of their income on it. And it is good for Missouri businesses, which can keep experienced workers on the job when they become parents. (Care-related turnover costs Missouri businesses more than $1 billion per year.)
The second Investment helps the Missouri Women’s Business Center, a project of Central Missouri Community Action, provide small loans to entrepreneurs in struggling rural communities in the middle of the state, with the goal of helping them get their businesses off the ground and start creating good jobs.
As the Show-Me state, we have an opportunity to roll up our sleeves, get to work, and get results. We can improve life for our neighbors, make the future brighter for our state and show the rest of the country what it looks like to face a challenge and start solving it, together. See how you can be a part of it at UpwardMo.org
Ryan Rippel is a co-founder of Upward Momentum, a new philanthropic 501(c)(3) nonprofit in Missouri that aims to address generational economic decline.
