Practice question · Multiple choice
A columnist argues: "Most people today out-earn their parents, so our society is highly meritocratic." What is the flaw?
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- What if the whole occupational structure moved up?
- Subtract the tide, then ask about swimmers.
Show the answer
D. Absolute mobility says nothing about origins
Why
A rising occupational tide lifts nearly everyone above their parents even in a rigid society. Openness is measured by relative mobility, odds ratios that ignore the tide, and those can stay brutal while absolute mobility looks triumphant.
Practise Social Stratification
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More questions on Social Stratification
- Complete the Great Gatsby curve.
- Order the steps of an honest mobility analysis.
- Structural (absolute) mobility or relative mobility (fluidity)? Sort each finding.
- Match each measurement tool to what it reveals.
- A society where everyone's income rises and the ranking of families never changes has high absolute mobility…
- Top-born children reach the top with odds 3-to-1; bottom-born children with odds 1-to-4. Set the slider to…