To think social mobility in the UK is awful?

[cnwc]

AIBU to think that social mobility has actually got much worse in the last decades rather than better?

I think house prices in places like London have got a lot to do with it, and too many of the best jobs are located there.

It seems pretty much impossible for people to move up in the world

It is doing well at going down

Cities are the best place to live for social mobility - I live in an area which is in the bottom of the lowest 20%, and if you looked at here you see a beautiful area, good employment etc. But the opportunities during a childs life are much harder to access as no one looks at leafy green rural places as needing events to widen their horizons, and everything is that much further away even if you hear about it.

You’re not wrong. God knows how you fix it but I’m pretty sure Austerity is making it worse.

That pre-supposes that London really is the be all and end all!

You seem to dismiss the vast majority of the UK.

I'd also be a bit wary of what social mobility is these days. I am not sure what it means nowadays. For me it meant having a job that wasn't behind a bar, living in a flat bigger than a bedsit and, in my 30s, believing I could actually do a degree, work in a professional.

Now, I am not sure what it would be. Much of what I thought was progress is not valued as highly these days. Other things I don't value having risen in prominence.

You are assuming there is wilderness outside of London

The stats show social mobility is shrinking and house price rises aren't just in London. Our area of Yorkshire has seen huge house price rises in the last 25 years out of all proportion to wage increases.

That pre-supposes that London really is the be all and end all! You seem to dismiss the vast majority of the UK

Bit unfair on the op. She’s got an excellent point - the economy is centred around London. No point pretending otherwise.

Is it?

Funny, like the majority of people I've never lived or worked there.

There may be a preponderance of some sectors there... though they do exist elsewhere and many are moving out... but I've always thought the London-centric thing was politics, finance...

Sorry I wasn't trying to be London centric, but the UK IS London centric. We are a major services based economy, and you guessed it , the best of these jobs are in London. You only need to look at fields like Law to see that there is a huge difference between London and non London.

Moving there is great if your family already have a house there. But what about if they don't? Anyway that's just on about middle class jobs...

Removing FOM is also going to make it worse. 🙁

Unlike other countries UK has free education, healthcare, lower unemployment, good opportunities for everyone disregarding sex, race, age
I disagree

I disagree.

Germany and Switzerland are bad for this, the UK is not bad.

I agree OP although I personally believe social mobility is fair in London due to a high level of social housing/ rental property, immigration etc. City support services (admin, sales etc) are fairly low attainment wise (in terms of qualifiaction etc) but very highly paid (relatively) and traditionally over represented by the poorer areas of east London/ south London and then Essex and Kent following on from that.

In other parts of the country though, it’s even worse. I come from one of the most affluent cities in the south east yet my comp
Was not reflective of this at all, and seemed to churn out a disproportionate number of tradesmen. We weren’t really offered any opprtunities (although as children of the 90s did fine getting into university as did most of the population)

Ah! Having moved from Up North to South of the Midlands I've never really felt the effects of The Big Smoke. I am usually annoyed at the continued London-centricity of much news, politicking etc.

I'll back out of this, as I suspect I don't see social mobility or London the same way as other posters.

I agree mobility is going backwards. My view is London centric because that’s what I know. It’s so much harder to get into a good school now, increases in uni fees, etc. The property market & lack of social housing has had a huge impact. I think for a lot of today’s kids so much of the future depends on what their parents had/have & working hard is not enough, which is a shame.

www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/britains-social-mobility-crisis-in-ten-graphs

This highlights social mobility issues.
Almost everyone I know from family to people at university spent at least some years in London working on their careers before often leaving again.

It’s gotnothing to do with house prices. It’s about education. Only 10% ofchildren go to private schools so they are the only ones that benefit from a full education. State schools simply do have the funding to reach anything outside of of the curriculum and most parents don’t bother so the pupils completely lack tuition in etiquette, elocution, reason skills, high cultures, general extra curricular etc. About 70-80% of people are completely inadequately prepared for life in Britain as a result and by and large fail to secure well paid employment but they have no idea why because they are in the majority so their inadequacies are largely invisible. It’s actually very surprising how many British people are completely blind to their own etiquette.

Wow, that was an unusually auto incorrected post even by my own standards. *state schools don’t have the funds to teach beyondtje curriculum

It’s gotnothing to do with house prices. It’s about education

Where I live the furthest offer for the outstanding primary school was approx 450 metres. A 2 bed flat in the catchment is 650k, a 3 bed terrace 1.2m.

@hovercraft but if you want your children to receive a full education you have to pay for it and the private sector is eye wateringly expendive here.

I am so angry about the state of social mobility. I am from a town with the worst social mobility in England. It really is so unfair.

@fancynancylancy but those are state schools

Well there is absolutely no need to spend £1.3m to be near an outstanding primary school. And the point is still about education isn’t it?

Education is currently linked to house prices for the majority of the population who receive a state education.
All state schools are not equal some are very good and some are very bad, with plenty in the middle.
The wealthier middle classes buy their way into the better schools through housing.
These schools provide their dc with much better life chances than those in failing schools.

BogglesGoggles Are you saying that to do well, one has to have a private education?

Passthecherrycoke Of course not but many good London schools have seen huge price growth in their surrounding areas. As someone who was born, raised & educated pretty much where I live now there has been a huge change in the area.