Those in search of the American dream should move to Canada, according to Ford Foundation president Darren Walker.
“That American dream as we know it, which was the envy of the world, is no longer the envy of the world,” Walker said on “Squawk Box”.
“In fact, the United States has fallen behind other industrialized nations in terms of economic mobility. If you want the American dream today, you ought to move to Canada.”
Walker oversees the international philanthropic organization founded by Henry Ford’s son, Edsel, in 1936.
The Ford Foundation focuses on social justice and has an endowment of $13 billion, distributing more than $600 million annually in grants.
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The “shared prosperity” capitalism provided to those who moved to the U.S. in years gone by is no more, Walker said, but that does not mean the western ideology is broken.
“They’ve got a capitalist system, and they’re doing better than us on providing opportunity,” Walker told CNBC in reference to Canada.
“I want to challenge capitalism to do what it’s supposed to do, and that is to provide opportunity for as many people.”
Walker pointed out U.S. public schools and the criminal justice system, which “ensnares too many people of color”, as examples of systems that have failed to offer prosperity to minority groups while propagating inequality.
