Moving Up

            I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” This statement implies a lack of mobility between social classes. While I believe that education and cultural sophistication is the most important factor in determining one’s social class, many Americans find income to be the most important. Income provides an opportunity for education, so regardless of your view on this subject, income undeniably plays an important role in determining one’s social class.

Thomas Sowell, an African American economist at Stanford University explores this idea of social mobility in his book Economic Facts and Fallacies. He states that “three quarters of those Americans whose incomes were in the bottom 20 percent in 1975 were also in the top 40 percent at some point during the next 16 years” (166). He also notes that over 50 percent of people who were in the top one percent of earners in 1996 were no longer there in 2005 (167).

These two quotes suggest that there may be more social mobility in America than we might expect. Upward mobility is not easy, but it is also not impossible, and while there is some truth to the “rich get richer” saying, the situation is not as hopeless as it may sound.

One of the best predictors of social mobility, even greater than the family’s initial income, is the emphasis of education in the person’s culture and family. For example, in an article in the Jewish World Review, the author cites a study that found that immigrants from Asia were one of the groups whose achievements go against the idea that upward mobility is very hard to reach in America. This finding shows that certain cultural values may help a person overcome class mobility barriers, by promoting hard work, determination, and education.

In an article from the Brookings institute, it was found that children born to parents with an income in the highest quintile were five times more likely to end up in that highest 20 percent than the lowest 20 percent. This shows that kids with means are more likely than not going to wind up in the same income level as their parents. So, there will always be greater opportunity for those who are born with means.

Social mobility in America has its limits, but there do seem to be factors that can allow an individual to escape poverty. Education seems to be a game-changer, but unfortunately, access to education is at least partly limited by income.