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No-Menu-768 t1_j8f55xl wrote

... yeah. It doesn't matter how much personal motivation you have if the regime whose territory you live in systemically disenfranchises you and enables mass extraction of surplus value. Improving the livelihoods of people in that territory is usually the primary political argument leading to changes in political rule. "Follow me, and I'll get you better food and housing" is a very compelling argument even if the "how" isn't clear. Typically, new political regimes require a period of proving themselves, so they implement policies directly tied to improving social mobility such as socialized housing and healthcare, public infrastructure like transit and medical resources, and education/skill training/jobs programs.

Edit: the article is about a case study on the Meiji Restoration where an entrenched political establishment was replaced with one that promoted social mobility. Which makes sense. Established political regimes want to perpetuate themselves, which usually means establishing some mechanism of inheritance and protecting that mechanism. Shogunate Japan had what was essentially a caste system, where your occupations and expectations were defined by your familial relations. It offered very little social mobility. The period of transition offered the most social mobility because the opportunity for mobility was the best salary available. After the restoration was complete, mobility shrank again as the established regime needed to protect their "in-group" and its interests. Worth reading the article either way for the case study's specifics, but the headline is a little vague for the content.

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klousGT t1_j8g0cur wrote

Luck is the biggest factor in social mobility, change my mind.

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External-Tiger-393 t1_j8jfp05 wrote

I would argue that opportunity is the biggest factor, and most places in the world don't give you a lot of opportunities.

There are a ton of situations that you can have, just in the US, that can stop your social mobility and/or keep you in the poverty trap.

Not being able to afford school; not being able to afford to survive while you go to school; not being able to access the health care you need to maintain enough functioning to get into a higher paying field, learn a trade, or go to college; being in a situation where you feel that you need to take care of a sick relative or younger siblings because you've been raised to put yourself second for the needs/convenience of others; becoming a single parent too "early" for any possible reason...

Someone I know has their extended family paying $50k out of the $80k they need to go to their university every year, and the rest is covered by scholarships. They have OCD and generalized anxiety disorder, but they get the health care that they need to manage that. You may see how this person might have a lot more opportunities than most people to "get ahead", so to speak; and I think that a lot of people would be as or more successful than they are in the same position. They just don't get the same kind of support. Hell, even this person's sibling doesn't get remotely the same kind of support.

IMO this is where the government should come in, but obviously (at least, again, in the US) it doesn't. I know a whole bunch of motivated people who can't get ahead, and the reasons are almost always systemic. I also know some people who don't want to get ahead, so to speak, but they are few and far between and they're also my immediate family which is made up mostly of grifters.

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Valdamier t1_j8f7n8m wrote

Social mobility can also refer to social movements, as opposed to personal situations. The ability to mobilize for a cause. March on Washington, Freedom Riders, Occupy, protest in general, etc.

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carpenter t1_j8gfpmv wrote

An analysis of a single point in time in a single country is not even remotely conclusive.

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