Practice question · Multiple choice
A society where everyone's income rises and the ranking of families never changes has high absolute mobility and low relative mobility. Which matters for the meritocracy claim?
Hints
- Everyone got richer and nobody changed places. Ask which fact bears on whether position is earned.
- Economic growth alone can produce one of the two. Which?
Show the answer
C. Relative mobility, since meritocracy is about earning position
Why
Growth lifts everyone and leaves the ladder untouched, so out-earning your parents is compatible with a perfectly hereditary order. Conflating the two is the standard rhetorical move in mobility debates, and separating them is most of the analysis.
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