Following the success sequence is a path away from poverty and crime
May 12, 2021
First, graduate. Second, maintain full-time employment. Third, if you’re going to have kids, wait until you’re married. If you follow those three steps in that order, you are following what has been coined the “success sequence.” People who have followed the success sequence are much likelier to escape poverty and end up in the middle to upper-income brackets. Many parents have been giving similar advice for generations, but academics and policymakers have only recently given the concept any attention.
Isabell Sawhill, (associate director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Clinton White House) and Ron Haskins (senior advisor to the President for Welfare Policy in the Bush White House) featured the “Three Norms Analysis” (a precursor to the success sequence) in their 2009 book “Creating an Opportunity Society,” and used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey to measure the performance of those who completed one, two, or all three of the “three norms” in terms of income distribution. Their analysis showed that individuals in families headed by an able-bodied adult between the ages of 25 and 64 had a 98% chance of escaping poverty if the family adhered to all three norms, whereas 76% of individuals living in families who did not adhere to any of the three norms were living below poverty.
