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The Public Policy
Economic Mobility
Social mobility — the opportunity to move up — cannot be measured solely by how much movement takes place.
Most people are not even surprised any more when they hear about someone who came here from Korea or Vietnam with very little money, and very little knowledge of English, who nevertheless persevered and rose in American society. Nor are we surprised when their children excel in school and go on to professional careers.
Yet, in utter disregard of such plain facts, so-called “social scientists” do studies which conclude that America is no longer a land of opportunity, and that upward mobility is a “myth.” Even when these studies have lots of numbers in tables and equations that mimic the appearance of science, too often their conclusions depend on wholly arbitrary assumptions.
Even people regarded as serious academic scholars often measure social mobility by how many people from families in the lower part of the income distribution end up in higher income brackets. But social mobility — the opportunity to move up — cannot be measured solely by how much movement takes place.
Opportunity is just one factor in economic advancement. How well a given individual or group takes advantage of existing opportunities is another. Only by implicitly (and arbitrarily) assuming that a failure to rise must be due to society’s barriers can we say that American society no longer has opportunity for upward social mobility.
The very same attitudes and behavior that landed a father in a lower income bracket can land the son in that same bracket. But someone with a different set of attitudes and behavior may rise dramatically in the same society. Sometimes even a member of the same family may rise while a sibling stagnates or falls by the wayside.
Ironically, many of the very people who are promoting the idea that the “unfairness” of American society is the reason why some individuals and groups are not advancing are themselves a big part of the reason for the stagnation that occurs.
The welfare state promoted by those who insist that it is society that is keeping some people down makes it unnecessary for many low-income people to exert themselves — and therefore makes it unnecessary for them to develop their own potential to the fullest.
The multiculturalist dogma that says one culture is just as good as another paints people into the cultural corner where they happened to have been born, even if other cultures around them have features that offer better prospects of rising.
Just speaking standard English in an English-speaking country can improve the odds of rising. But multiculturalists’ celebration of foreign languages or ethnic dialects, and of counterproductive cultural patterns exemplified by such things as gangsta rap, can promote the very social stagnation that they blame on “society.”
Meanwhile, Asian immigrants or refugees who arrive here are not handicapped or distracted by a counterproductive social vision full of envy, resentment and paranoia, and so can rise in the very same society where opportunity is said to be absent.
Those “social scientists,” journalists and others who are committed to the theory that social barriers keep people down often cite statistics showing that the top income brackets receive a disproportionate and growing share of the country’s income.
But the very opposite conclusion arises in studies that follow actual flesh-and-blood individuals over time, most of whom move up across the various income brackets with the passing years. Most working Americans who were initially in the bottom 20 percent of income-earners, rise out of that bottom 20 percent. More of them end up in the top 20 percent than remain in the bottom 20 percent.
People who were initially in the bottom 20 percent in income have had the highest rate of increase in their incomes, while those who were initially in the top 20 percent have had the lowest. This is the direct opposite of the pattern found when following income brackets over time, rather than following individual people.
Most of the media publicize what is happening to the statistical brackets — especially that “top one percent” — rather than what is happening to individual people.
We should be concerned with the economic fate of flesh-and-blood human beings, not waxing indignant over the fate of abstract statistical brackets. Unless, of course, we are hustling for an expansion of the welfare state.
COPYRIGHT 2013 Creators.com
About the Author
Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His website is www.tsowell.com. To find out more about Thomas Sowell and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
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Appleby| 3.6.13 @ 6:33AM
We have a lot of stories about the Poor Poor Pitiful Poor who are living in government housing that is falling to pieces. We never hear a single word about any of these people who are trying to (1) keep their children from smashing up the place and (2) repairing the things they are responsible for smashing up. Somehow they seem to believe the landlord is supposed to clean up the place, for example, including their appliances and their floors. Why would people want to live in a place without doing anything to make it clean and comfortable? Probably if you moved them into the Trump Towers, in a couple of months the place would be a reeking sinkhole just like the one they left.
alice921| 3.17.13 @ 4:07PM
Its definitely the most-financially rewarding Ive ever done. Make money with Google. last monday I got a new Alfa Romeo from bringing in $7778. I started this 9-months ago and practically straight away started making more than $83... per hour. I work through this link, http://tw.gs/YbVcey
Von Mises Jr| 3.6.13 @ 9:58AM
Belief in a class society with no mobility is an excuse for losers and lazy bums. It is a rationalization for those who do not want to take responsibility for them and their families.
Of course there are some intelligent people who adopt liberalism for self-esteem and to stroke their own egos. They use liberalism to promote how damn smart they are and to demand more power over other people's lives and money.
I find them both to be a bore.
Petronius| 3.6.13 @ 12:06PM
For once thous speakest B S. Upward social mobility is determined 99.44% of the time by those who wield institutional authority. There are always the select few who can't be stopped by these people, but the average person with no connections and or who refuses to wear the bosses shade of brown lipstick doesn't stand a chance. I watched as many a management trainee chucked it and returned to the craft because the only thing gained by abasing themselves was 2 new cohorts of enemies; their subordinates and colleagues. Couple that with remote possibility of meeting your expectations and you're just spinning your wheels. My sister has 3 post graduate degrees and held an upper managerial post for 11 years. After leaving it she outlined all the time and expense she put in to get that job. Her net income from all that effort was less than $2 per hour and a lot of living for herself forgone in the bargain. We still believe that the American Dream is owning Your life to the extent that no authority can disturb your pleasure. It's a Dream because authority is always in the way.
Conservative Bob| 3.6.13 @ 1:53PM
Petronius
Upward mobility is determined by what roadblocks the individual chooses to allows to stop them. I know many who have worked in a company culture that blocked advancement beyond a certain point for all but the chosen few, they broke through by taking their drive and determination elsewhere. People are only limited by the 'authorities' they choose to allow to control them.
Individual drive and initiative combined with skills and hard work will determine what an individual can achieve.
I have lived it and I have mentored it, and seen first hand too many times to recount people rise through force of will.
Appleby| 3.6.13 @ 2:49PM
Ditto. I graduated from university with no marketable skills save typing, and ended up in the media centre at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (six years running) -- the biggest and most important car race in the world, with limited seats in the exalted circle, and I got one. That was due to sheer chutzpah and proof that I could do the job. And if I can do it, anybody can.
Moe Blotz| 3.6.13 @ 10:52PM
Important to whom? To sports car and prototypes I suppose.
JD| 3.6.13 @ 4:23PM
Is Sowell still writing these articles or are these just excerpts from his books? Still good stuff, but sometimes I wonder...
cicero| 3.6.13 @ 4:52PM
For a generation who has equated degrees with education, it is no wonder that they are confused. While there are many roadblocks on the path to success, much depends on how and whether they are overcome. Some have fewer because of family position or social standing. So what? You have to fight the battle with the weapons you have, not those you think you are entitled to.
We are developing a majority underclass because we have convinced the past few generations that they are entitled to success by virtue of the fact that they were born, and that fairness demands it. Everybody who is, and ever was, had to be born. And, you want fair? go to a baseball game. It is time that this culture regain its sense of maturity. If it doesn't do so soon, it will be gone.