THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510270024
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Part of the genius of America has always been its social mobility, the ability of people to move up and down the economic ladder often by moving here and there to follow opportunity. Frequently Americans have had to choose between roots and routes, between staying put and stultifying or lighting out for the territory with all the risks it entails. But at least Americans have had a choice
Increasingly, however, Americans must choose between social mobility and the safety net. Things that appear to make us safer in the short run may also make the society less fluid, limit our options and close down opportunities in the long run. The issues are all familiar, but they haven't always been viewed as part of a larger context.
The price of a middle-class life has become two working adults, but that's cut into the ability of families to follow where opportunity leads. When Dad is offered a promotion to headquarters, Mom may not be able to find another job. Instead of a net gain, the family can wind up facing a net loss of income and so choose not to make the move.
Sociologist William Julius Wilson has pointed out that the urban underclass has resulted in part from inner cities that no longer contain jobs, middle-class neighborhoods, shopping and mass transit. Ghetto residents find themselves trapped in a no man's land.
Something similar has occurred in blue-collar towns where downsizing by big employers has left a high percentage of the work force unemployed. Also in rural America, where family farms are no longer viable and once-thriving small towns have shriveled. In each case, the choice has been to leave home or face diminished prospects. When the jobs move away and the people can't or won't, they face a bleak future.
Benefits can also lock employees into a workplace. Health-care insurance is often not portable. Some pension and retirement benefits improve the longer an employee stays with a company. Yet the result can be workers staying on jobs they no longer want to their own detriment and that of employers.
Finally, the G.I. Bill is often regarded as the greatest aid to social mobility in history. Millions changed their station in life by getting better educated.
Today, education is increasingly expensive and money with which to fund it is harder to come by. Young people who do manage to get educated often begin their careers encumbered with a huge debt. Instead of following their interests, they may feel compelled to seek the highest-paying job in order to pay off loans.
America was once viewed as a land of opportunity in part because people were relatively free to take a chance. Unlike those born into the stratified societies of Europe and Asia, Americans weren't doomed to spend their lives in the place where they began.
But numerous forces now make us less free, restrict our choices, limit our mobility. There may be no simple way to reverse the trend, but it's an issue that ought to worry us. One of the things that made us unique is being lost.
Candidates seeking an issue for 1996 could do worse than to address this one. How do we provide opportunity to individuals to follow where their ambition leads when features of our social geography and our educational, health and employment systems tend to limit freedom? by CNB