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live—and the reality of what the American economy rewards. Triple Package groups are taking advantage of that disconnect.

CHAPTER 2
    WHO’S SUCCESSFUL IN AMERICA?
    I N THIS CHAPTER WE’LL be taking a look at America’s most successful groups as measured by income, academic accomplishment, corporate leadership, professional attainment, and other conventional metrics. But first we should clarify the kind of groups we’re looking at.
    There are infinite ways to slice up the U.S. population. Countless economic mobility studies break down American wealth by race—typically white, black, Asian, and Hispanic. A recent countertrend focuses on class and class rigidity instead, dividing the population into quintiles, rich and poor, 99 percent and 1 percent. But gigantic umbrella terms like “race” and “class” obscure as much as they reveal.
    The reality, uncomfortable as it may be to talk about, is that some religious, ethnic, and national-origin groups are starkly more successful than others. Without looking squarely at such groups, it’s impossible to understand economic mobility in America and what the levers of success in this country really are.
    A distinctive feature of many—but by no means all—religious,ethnic, and national-origin groups is that they are “cultural groups”: their members tend to be raised with, identify themselves by, and pass down certain culturally specific values and beliefs, habits and practices. * Needless to say, religion, ethnicity, and national origin are cultural starting points, not end points. Cultural subdivisions within these categories—for example, fundamentalist versus non-fundamentalist, first-generation immigrant versus third-generation—can have dramatic effects on group success, and we’ll be highlighting these finer distinctions throughout.
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    I F THERE’S ONE GROUP in the U.S. today that’s hitting it out of the park with conventional success, it’s Mormons.
    Just fifty years ago, Mormons were often regarded as a fringe group; many Americans had barely heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (The term “Mormon” is not part of the official Church name and comes from the Book of Mormon, a new work of scripture that the church’s founder, Joseph Smith, said he translated from golden plates received from an angel.)Concentrated in Utah and neighboring states, Mormons were a largely isolated and insulated community, resisting many developments in modern America. As late as 1978, the LDS Church expresslydiscriminated againstblacks, refusing to ordain them into the priesthood. In 1980, Mormons werestill a rarity on Wall Street and in Washington.
    Three decades later, it’s hard not to notice the Mormons’ explosive success. Overwhelmingly, Mormon success has been of the most mainstream, conventional,apple-pie variety. You don’t find a lot of Mormons breaking the mold or dropping out of college to form their own high-tech start-ups. (Omniture cofounder Josh James is a notable exception.) What you mostly find is corporate, financial, and political success, which makes perfect sense given the nature of the Mormon chip on the shoulder. Long regarded as a polygamous, almost crackpot sect, Mormons seem determined to prove they’re more American than other Americans—with a particular penchant for presidential runs.
    Whereas Protestants make up about 51 percent of the U.S. population, America’s5 to 6 million Mormons represent just 1.7 percent. Yet a stunning number have risen to the top of America’s corporate and political spheres.
    Most famous of course is Mitt Romney, who, before serving as governor of Massachusetts for four years, was CEO of Bain Capital (and now has an estimated net worth of $230 million). Jon Huntsman Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to China and for a while Romney’s rival for the 2012 Republican nomination, is also Mormon, as is majority leader of the U.S. Senate, Harry Reid.Other leading Mormon politicians include Senator