Dry Hopes

When someone says “the land of opportunity” the United States comes to mind, right? However, how much true opportunity is there really in the United States, considering that this country has been in such a great recession lately many would assume that social mobility is very low; furthermore this stagnant level of class fluidity dates back much further than the early recession of 2008. Believe it or not the United States is one of the least movable countries when concerning class and social mobility. Studies have proven that this stagnation in the US is not only enforced by the fluctuation in money, but by the environment in which the younger generations are raised in. Therefore there is a complete correlation between the communities in which a child learns to acquire his or her morals that affect the likelihood of this young specimen to be able to reach higher levels in society.

The thought may be obscure, however family life is one of the key factors in seeing social fluidity. It has been proven that there is a greater chance of upward mobility if they live in communities with fewer single parents. Leading to believe that if there is a strong support for the newer generation they are essentially being indirectly taught that there needs to be a level of commitment into being able to accomplish their life’s pinnacle, in this case moving up from lower to higher classes. These communities also tend to have more religious individuals and greater participation in local civic organizations. Religion, apart from the teachings, demonstrates at a young age the values of perseverance to reaching the end goal which in this case would be the ability to move up a class or maybe even move up two classes. Likewise, participating in civic organizations factor in to higher status movability because there is involvement and broader thinking that is being brought upon the child. This could lead to networking with other people or simply be the life lesson of optimism and positivity which helps kids look on the more pleasant side of things.

Countries such as Denmark and Great Britain have been able to accomplish the task of social mobility to the point where almost everyone has the opportunity to be able to move up in class rankings. The United States is nowhere near having the same status in social mobility compared to some of the higher moving countries because the bottom fifth of the income distribution has a 7.5% chance of reaching the top fifth of the income distribution in the U.S. This goes back to how a child’s background influences them on where to end up. The United States carries both extremes of fluidity. One being San Jose, California where there is a huge amount of movement that almost equates that of Denmark; unlike Charlotte, North Carolina where it as stagnant as can be. The most fluid in the US is that of the Middle America remains fluid. About 36 percent of Americans raised in the middle fifth move up as adults, while 23 percent stay on the same rung and 41 percent move down. This here shows that there is still ability to improve in this economy, as well as fall; what isn’t proven is that those all the way at the lowest part of the income scale have the same ability to accomplish higher makings than the civilians that begin their lives out in the middle rankings of the United States.

Why does everybody want to move up in social class? Well there can be a multitude of factors that would be easily put into the answer to this question however what seems to be a trend is that 81 percent of Americans have higher incomes than their parents. This here is where there is stagnation because if everybody is moving up together they technically are remaining in their same position considering the movement around them. This would lead to something called immobility which can be researched through “The Great Gatsby Curve,” takes data from several countries at a single point in time to show the relationship between inequality and immobility. The reason the US is so unmovable is that there is a high mixture of both put into the mix where not everybody has the same opportunities as other people. For example if there is a child growing up in a rough neighborhood with five siblings, one parent, all living in a miniscule house there is most definitely not a comparison to the child which has one sibling, both parents, and a standard sized home. Leading to the next point on education, which absolutely helps a child be able to get to higher point in life later on because if a family makes a higher income they are willing to spend much more money on the child’s education which is what benefits the child’s learning. This allows them to grow more intellectually and be able to go into better careers and fields.

Just because there are factors that seem like hurdles that some may have to overcome it does not mean that it is not possible to make it. An example of someone who overcame these barriers and proved to be part of that moving 5% is Oprah Winfrey. This woman came virtually from nothing and had all odds piled up against her but she broke that overbearing thought of inequality. Inequality will always be there in society which will always cause an imbalance in how much society is movable. As it started in 1980s when The U.S. has had a sharp rise in inequality. This here is where the social mobility in the US becoming firmer and less pleasant for those on the lower end of the spectrum. However on the eve of the Great Recession, income inequality in the U.S. was as sharp as it had been at any period since the time of "The Great Gatsby.". This demonstrates that there was a process that lead to the stagnation that many experience today. Despite huge increases in inequality, America may be no less mobile a society than it was 40 years ago there is still so much more room for improvement to be done.

In all retrospect there will always be environmental and social factors which inhibit children of lower classes to be able to move up to higher rankings and positions in life. There will be corruption to inequality and immobility that keeps many stagnant and running in place. To see a fruitful amount of social movement in this country there needs to be some type of political changes to this nation that need to touch on both morality issues and real life situations in which these kids could be living in because as it has been stated that many don’t have the means to be able to move up the social ladder in these United States. Therefore some watering needs to be done to this dry, barren land, that gives false sense of opportunity, called the United States.