SOCIAL MOBILITY

As we know the class system is primarily based on money or material possessions (to which can be acquired), therefore, making it more open than the other stratification systems. This system is affective at birth and the children ascribe the status of their parents. Unlike the other systems, individuals can change their social class upon what they achieve in their life. The class system is then known to have social mobility. What is social mobility? As discussed in class and in our textbook, social mobility is when a class system allows upward and downward movement in the social class ladder. There are three types of social mobility: Intergenerational Mobility, Structural Mobility, and Exchange Mobility.

When family members make a change in their social class from one generation to the next, it is known as intergenerational mobility. One can experience an upward social mobility or a downward social mobility. For example, lets say my mom worked at a dealership selling used cars and I was a student working for the dealership part-time as well as getting my MBA. Once I graduated, my mom’s boss retired so jumped on the opportunity and put a down payment on the dealership. I get the dealership paid off and open a second location. According to this, I had experienced upward social mobility. In order to have experienced downward social mobility in this situation, I would be the owner’s child of the dealership who was a college drop out and now selling used cars.

The second type of social mobility is structural mobility. This is when changes in society are allowing large numbers of people to move up or down the class ladder and not by individual efforts. Continuing my example from above, this mobility helped contribute to my success in being able to expand my dealership. When I put a down payment on the dealership, economically it was a good time to get access to easy credit and to expand my business. If the economy had been in a recession, I most likely wouldn’t have had the opportunity to move upward in social mobility, as well as many others. Therefore, the changes in society created a great business opportunity for me.

The last kind of social mobility is the exchange mobility. This happens when people move up and down in social class such that, on balance, the proportions of social classes remain the same. Lets say the government trains a million working-class people in a new technology that moves them up the class ladder. Due to a surge in imports, another million people have to take a lower-status job. This has caused millions of people to change their class status and an exchange effect has happened to them. This then caused the net result to appear untouched.

Now that we have a better understanding of social mobility, would you say social mobility comes with a cost? It’s clear that so many things factor into social mobility and how is goes into effect. Nothing in social class equally applies to all groups in the U.S society.