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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

pull the ladder up behind smb

English answer:

prevent others from enjoying what they enjoy

Added to glossary by Jack Doughty
Feb 29, 2016 11:17
8 yrs ago
7 viewers *
English term

pull the ladder up behind smb

English Bus/Financial Environment & Ecology
HI !

Just came it across in Samuelson's textbook

Are threre enough recources to allow the poor to enjoy the consumption standards of today's high-income countries, or will today's rich pull the ladder up behind them?

Can you, please, help?
What does 'them' refer to?
- standards or the poor
And what's the meaning of this expression?
Many thanks !

Best regards,

Rastislau
Responses
4 +10 prevent others from enjoying what they enjoy
5 +2 the rich
Change log

Feb 29, 2016 12:11: P.L.F. Persio changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"

Mar 14, 2016 06:38: Jack Doughty Created KOG entry

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

PRO (3): Steffen Walter, Yasutomo Kanazawa, P.L.F. Persio

Non-PRO (2): Cilian O'Tuama, B D Finch

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Responses

+10
13 mins
Selected

prevent others from enjoying what they enjoy

Will the rich countries keep all the resources for themselves, denying others access to them?

Them: not the standards, not the poor, but the rich. Using "themselves" instead of "them" would have made this clearer.
Sou pulling up the ladder behind you (behind yourself), means that after you've got what you want, you prevent others from getting the same, which makes you a "dog in the manger", to use another idiom.
Peer comment(s):
agree Victoria Britten
22 mins
Тhank you.
agree Yasutomo Kanazawa
23 mins
Thank you.
agree Veronika McLaren
57 mins
Thank you.
agree BdiL
1 hr
Thank you.
agree Armorel Young
1 hr
Thank you.
agree Sheri P : More generally, it means not helping others reach the same high level you yourself have reached. It's often used to refer to high-achieving women who don't help other women who follow them.
1 hr
Thank you.
agree Tushar Deep
4 hrs
Тhank you.
agree B D Finch : Though disagree with "dog in the manger", which means someone jealously guarding something that is no use to themselves. Dogs don't eat hay.
5 hrs
Тhank you. Yes, on reflection, it's not a very close parallel.
agree jccantrell
7 hrs
Thank you.
agree Harry Crawford
7 days
Thank you.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Selected automatically based on peer agreement."
+2
19 mins

the rich

The rich refer to themselves - in the sentence "them" means "the rich". The author doesn't specify a particular group of "the rich" but mentions "high income countries" (those that traditionally benefit from the world's resources as they are benefiting from the monetary/financial/trade system that they themselves setup). By "pulling the ladder" the author means the rich can setup another obstacle which they can build into the system that would prevent those from low income countries to gain access to their resources.
I hope that clarifies it?
Peer comment(s):
agree BdiL : One uses the ladder to metaphorically "climb up" to higher economic or social status and becomes rich/powerful. If the ladder is pulled up after the climbing by that same "person", the rest are left below, without access to affluency. Maurizio
1 hr
agree Tushar Deep
4 hrs
Something went wrong...
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