How those at the top hang on to their privilege

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jan/27/how-those-at-the-top-hang-on-to-their-privilege

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While I support increasing upward social mobility into the professional and managerial class (Editorial, 26 January) it can only happen if a) that class expands to fit in the newly upwardly mobile; or b) fewer such jobs go to the offspring of professional and managerial parents, ie downward social mobility increases. Labour Force Survey data show that between 1997 and 2014 the average annual expansion of this class in the labour market was about 82,000.

However, earlier studies indicate that about half of these new jobs went to those born into professional and managerial families. The new room for upward mobility is thus about 40,000 a year for everybody else, not just the children of routine and semi-routine workers, if these trends continue. Post-Brexit, with a shrinking economy and public services, the figure is likely to get worse. Cue: more downward mobility?

Helpful though the Social Mobility Commission’s work often is, it also tends to be gender-blind. ONS data show nearly two men for every woman in the professional and managerial class. Gender inequalities extend to social mobility, too.Professor Geoff PayneNewcastle upon Tyne

• The Social Mobility Commission articulates what anyone not blessed with middle-class confidence has always known: people from middle-class backgrounds generally do better in the professional world even when they otherwise have the same abilities as those from working-class backgrounds. Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner is right to identify class elitism as endemic.

Too many equal opportunities policies are paper-based lip-service, particularly in those sectors where recruitment relies heavily on informal processes, and who you know and what dinner parties you’ve been to matters more than what you can do. As austerity bites and poverty grows, more politicians need to talk more about class.Peter McKennaLiverpool

• An average wage gap of £6,800 less for professionals from working-class backgrounds is an affront to social mobility, and a challenge to the education system. No one can get anywhere with only the traditional curriculum, and those with a deprived background do not normally have access to the extra-curricular activities beyond that basic education.

We need to place a greater emphasis on the importance and long-term economic benefit of character attributes and skills. Challenger Trust academy schools prove that it is only through establishing necessary character attributes, such as confidence, cooperation and independence, as part of compulsory education, that social mobility can finally become a reality.

Where social mobility really comes from is literal mobility – the determination, bravery, drive and enthusiasm that comes from being outdoors, taking on team work, and learning practical skills. These are the skills that, with maturity, will transfer immediately to the workplace, regardless of someone’s background. It is the endorphins and adrenaline released from this actual mobility that provides what is needed for the future generations to overcome the shocking gap that has been highlighted today.Charlie RigbyChairman, The Challenger Trust

• You are spot-on in defining a class/wealth ceiling. Apart from the chosen interns, the main difficulty is the unavailability of grants or funds for students to take postgraduate courses. These have been cut by the Tories. If you want to pursue scientific research at a high level, or journalism, acting or the law, there is no financial help.

There is also snobbery on the part of employers and those in some professions, to their shame.Christina NaylorLanguenan, France

• Turn “entrenching disadvantage” around and you get “entrenching advantage”. Surely a major cause of the enduring unfairness of our society is the continued existence of the public schools. These are not mentioned in your otherwise excellent editorial. How long before they become subject to a national debate?Mary TaskerBath

• Liam Byrne and Colin Hay are right to say that the big economic issue on which even the Davos elite focused is the surge in inequality (It’s time to rewrite the rules of economics, 19 January). They are right, too, that the government urgently needs to develop a new approach to economic policy that addresses spiralling differences in life chances, wealth and assets. The economics profession is undergoing a profound shift, with new approaches emerging as a corrective to the shareholder model of the last 40 years. The prime minister is right to talk of an inclusive economy, but we are yet to see any real substance behind the rhetoric.

So a broad coalition of organisations and MPs looking practically at the economic policy we need is a welcome one. Let’s hope it can put some serious and clear proposals for a fairer and more equal economy firmly on the agenda.Ed MayoSecretary general, Co-operatives UK

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