social inequality 史慧娟 1048316

Social mobility is the fundamental motivation for the development of a country. However, recently the situation in the United States is that inequality is growing and social mobility is slowing. A study showed that 62 percent of Americans raised in the top one-fifth of the income scale stay in the top two-fifths; 65 percent born in the bottom fifth stay in the bottom two-fifths. This condition is serious and is barely seen in many developing countries. Then, what makes for the decline in social mobility in America?Firstly, to a large degree, education makes for the decline in social mobility in the United States. Education was long praised as a good equalizer while instead of counteracting the inequalities, it now magnify them. Higher education in the United States is highly stratified, showering the most resources on the most-advantaged students. Low-income and minority students can only be concentrated in community colleges, which spend much less time and money on an individual students than private school where high-income and white students study. And the system of college admissions exacerbates inequalities. They pride themselves on defending race-based affirmative-action programs, but their policies tend to benefit the most economically advantaged students of color and do little things for low-income students. Thus, the fundamental reason is that they use public money to support a fairy small group at the top.
Secondly, actually, higher education has only a little to do with social inequality. The fundamental reason is our national arteriosclerosis that our federal, state and local policies contribute to *** the poor difficult to do business or find decent jobs.
In addition, the first reason contributes to the second reason in some way. As we promote higher education, a host of jobs are only open to people who have college credentials, but actually these jobs do not need those high requirements and they belonged to those poor people but are now foreclosed to them. As a result, many poor people are not employed and our economy become more rigid.
Thus, those two elements are two major reasons which contribute to society inequality. We should take some effective action to stop society inequality.