Socio-Economic Mobility in the U.S.

Socio-Economic Mobility in the United States
Socio-economic mobility can be defined as the ability of an individual or group to move up or down in status based on their income, career, and their level of education; however, this mobility system is so fragile that factors such as family structure, racial/economic segregation, school quality, social capital, and income inequality can easily ruin a person’s chances of moving from the bottom 1% of the world to the top 1%.
Out of all these factors most predictive of socio-economic mobility in the United States, one factor stands out in their study and that study is that of family structure. These studies have shown that ““the strongest and most robust predictor is the fraction of children with single parents”” and that ““[c]hildren of married parents also have higher rates of upward mobility if they live in communities with fewer single parents”” (par.5: https://diigo.com/075azk). In other words, children are more likely to climb the ladder when it comes to income if they are raised in an unbroken household. Unfortunately, this same study has shown that both racial and economic segregation is one of only two key factors, with the other being family structure, that is consistently associated with the absolute and relative mobility in the United States. For example, kids who are brought up in communities that are racially segregated have proven less likely to achieve a state of upward advancement in the social system (chart #2: https://diigo.com/075azk). A third very powerful predicator of mobility for low-income kids is the quality of schools they are presented with. When looking at high school dropout rates in poorer neighborhoods the takeaway was that if these same children were taken and put into better schools where they would receive a high quality education they would be more likely to be economically successful. For instance, a survey taken in 2009 of young adults who worked full-time over a full year found the average income of those without a high school diploma was $21,000, which was below the $22,050 poverty level for a family of four, and was less than half of those with a bachelor's degree (par.26: https://diigo.com/075b3s).
Fortunately, communities with higher amounts of social capital will see “significantly higher levels of absolute mobility for poor children” (par.9: https://diigo.com/075azk). In other words, children who grow up in communities across the United States that have higher levels of civic engagement, religiosity (church involvement within a community), and voter involvement are much more likely to experience upward social mobility at some point in their future. Finally, income inequality within a community is also linked with low levels of mobility even though it does not have a very strong predicative power like the other factors do. For example, a study from the Economic Mobility Project states that “growing up in a high-poverty neighborhood increases Americans’ risk of experiencing downward mobility and explains a sizable portion of the black-white downward mobility gap” (par.30: https://diigo.com/075b3s) is trying to prove that being poor is directly related to race and the gap between whites and African Americans and that is why the other factors listed above are more significant when it comes to what can affect a person’s ability to move upward and downward in status.
When comparing socio-economic mobility in the United States to that of other countries it is obvious that we are at a median in terms of opportunity, and that we are lower than most open nations like Sweden, Canada, and Norway but higher than more rigid nations such as Germany, Ireland, and Portugal. Multiple studies of mobility in developed countries have shown the United States is among the lowest; in fact, one study in particular discovered that out of nine developed countries both the United States and the United Kingdom had the lowest intergenerational vertical mobility. Also, according to journalist Jason DeParle, “At least five large studies in recent years have found the United States to be less mobile than comparable nations.” and another study led by Markus Jantti support this in that it found “42 percent of American men raised in the bottom fifth of incomes stay there as adults” while only “8 percent of [those same] American men at the bottom rose to the top fifth” (par.10: https://diigo.com/075b3s). All of these studies confirm previous findings that the United States’ social mobility is low when compared with many European countries. For instance, in Denmark, a low-income child has twice as much of a chance of making it to the top 1% of the social system as poor children in America do. However, this challenges multiple smaller, recent studies that proved that America had become less socially mobile than it once was before. For example, a fairly recent Gallup poll discovered that only 52% of Americans think that there is plenty of opportunity for the average person to get ahead in life, down from 81% in year 1998 (par.5: https://diigo.com/075bcf).
All in all, this just goes to show how fragile the mobility system really is when it can be affected by so many factors such as: family structure, racial/economic segregation, school quality, social capital, and income inequality without American’s even realizing that we have fallen behind other developed countries and straight to the bottom right to the lowest rung in socio-economic mobility.