Social mobility | Essay

Indledning
Lack of social mobility is a problem that always has existed. Even though most societies have evolved to be extremely civilized all over the world, it is still pertinent in highly evolved countries like Britain.

Britain is getting more and more divided, and upward social mobility is a significant difficulty that keeps growing.

The Government's Social Mobility Commission expected that in the 20th century each generation would be better off than the preceding one, but that is not the reality we meet today.

But what is actually causing this alarming growth and what options does the UK have to stop it? This essay will account for social mobility in Britain, analyse what obstacles it leads to and at last discuss how Britain can overcome these obstacles.

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Uddrag
As mentioned above, Britain is getting more divided, and it is especially the middle income “treadmill families” that have become the victims of Britain’s growing social mobility crisis.

A treadmill family is characterized as families that are running harder and harder and yet standing still economic.

These families work hard every day but still are not able to climb the social and economic ladder, and this is, unfortunately, a common phenomenon in Britain nowadays.

For an example, there is 30-year-old Spencer York from Darlington, who is a part of this treadmill phenomenon.

He works as a bike mechanic and after their family has paid for all the necessities such as rent, car insurance, food, and nursery bills there is no money left for other things.

In the following quote, it is evident that it can be difficult to see a way out of the treadmill lifestyle: “Spencer enjoys his job, but says he has no idea how his future or that of his family is going to improve.”

This quote supports the fact that uncertainty for the future is very common in the working class, due to the fact, that changes rarely happen and they end up with the feeling of being stuck in society.

A considerable problem that also occurs, is that the young generation who comes from a struggling family, mostly are unable to climb the social and economic ladder.

It starts to be a problem for those at a young age when the children are about to go to school, and already here do not have the same options as the wealthy.