Page 58 - The Economist

58 Britain The Economist December 9th 2017

Bagehot Elevator malfunction

Britain ignores the problem ofstalled social mobilityatits peril
nityforthe poor: the 1944 Education Actraised the school-leaving
age to 15, then 16, and the expansion ofuniversitiesin the 1960sde-
mocratised higher education. Today opening up opportunities is
much more difficult, precisely because the meritocratic revolu-
tion has been so successful.
The meritocratic elite has proved remarkably good at hoard-
ing opportunities. Successful people tend to marry each other.
Couplesdevote themselvesto givingtheirchildren the best educ-
tion possible, starting in the nursery. Private schools have also
proved to be more successful than state schoolsatadapting to the
meritocratic spirit. Institutions that once turned out flannelled
fools and muddied oafs are now obsessed with exam results.
To make matters worse, the knowledge economy is a winner-
takes-most economy. Superstar firms are pulling ahead of run-of-
the-mill ones. Superstar cities are pulling ahead of second-tier
ones. This problem is more pronounced in Britain than almost
anywhere else because London is so dominant. The London ef-
fect is obviously good for London-based professionals who can
provide theirchildren with bed and board astheygettheir feeton
the career ladder (often as unpaid interns). But it is also good for
poorer people who are lucky enough to have subsidised accom-
N 1845, as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace, Benjamin modation within the sound ofBow Bells. London’s state schools
IDisraeli, a youngpolitician on the make, published a novel, “Sy- are better than the national average, jobs are plentiful and you
bil”, which lamented that Britain was dividing into “two nations can get almost anywhere, at a squeeze, by public transport.
between whom there isno intercourse and no sympathy”. Today, The result is a calcified society. Seventy-one per cent ofsenior
as the information revolution gathers pace, Britain suffers from judges, 62% of senior officers in the armed forces and 55% of civil
the same problem. The country is more divided than it has been service department heads attended private schools, which edu-
for decades, with the rich consolidating their power and people cate only 7% ofthe population. In Barnsley only10% ofdisadvan-
who are born in the wrong class orregion seeing their chances of taged young people make it to university, compared with 50% of
getting ahead declining. Theresa May rightly put dealing with similarly disadvantaged youngsters in Kensington and Chelsea.
this problem at the top of her agenda when she became prime Only 6% ofdoctors, 12% ofchiefexecutives and 12% ofjournalists
minister. But on December 3rd all four members of Britain’s So- come from working-class backgrounds.
cial Mobility Commission resigned in protest at the lack of pro-
gress. Thiswasone ofthe lowestpointsfora government thathas Going up
no shortage oflow points to choose from. Reversing this calcification will take a lot of innovative thinking.
Social mobilityisessential to the workingofan advanced cap- The Social Mobility Commission produced a series of excellent
italist society. For one thing, citizens will accept the inequalities reports which suggested sensible solutions such as better early
that capitalism generates only if they think they have a fair education fordisadvantaged children. Thiscolumnistwould sup-
chance of getting ahead. The notion that the system is rigged can port a combination of reaching into Britain’s past and peering
be just as destabilising as economic crises. Secondly, advanced into its future. Britain has a distinguished history of elite institu-
economies can grow only if they make a reasonable job of dis- tions doingtheirbit formobility: Oxbridge colleges creating feed-
covering the hidden Einsteins who might be able to produce the erschools, and private schoolssettingaside placesfor poorschol-
next great invention ifthey were given the chance. ars. Given that so many private schools have forgotten their
Britain is failing badly on both fronts. Its decision to leave the social obligationsin theirzeal to fatten theircoffers with feesfrom
European Union was above all a revolt ofthe left-behind. The So- rich Russians and Chinese, it is time to remind them that they
cial MobilityCommission discovered that62 ofthe 65 partsofthe need to earn theircharitable status. Meanwhile, the very technol-
country that it identified as “social-mobility cold spots”—that is, ogy that is widening class divisions can also be used to close
those with the worsteducation and employmentprospects—vot- them. The Israel Defence Forces respond to the lost-Einstein pro-
ed to leave. A new paper by Raj Chetty, of Stanford University, blem by monitoring children’s performance in video games, as
and colleagues, argues that American growth is being hindered well as more routine academic tests.
bythe missing-Einstein problem because educational opportuni- But Britain’s two main parties are failing to give this growing
ty is increasingly restricted by class or region. That problem is as problem the energy it requires. The Conservatives are over-
bad, ifnot worse, in Britain. whelmed by Brexit. Labour is devoting its intellectual resources,
As social mobility has become more important it has become in so faras it still has any, to the old problem ofa closed establish-
more difficult to promote. The reason for this is the paradox of ment rather than the new problem of the marriage of meritocra-
meritocracy. In the first half of the 20th century, when the old es- cy and plutocracy. Thanks to its commitment to intelligent re-
tablishment ruled the country, openingup opportunities was rel- form, Disraeli’s Britain became the most peaceful, as well as the
ativelysimple. Youforced the establishmentto abandon obvious most successful, country in Europe. The political class may well
prejudices, such as the fact that the best Oxbridge colleges were be about to demonstrate that what intelligence and reform can
reserved for men. You also forced it to build a ladder of opportu- do, stupidity and stasis can undo. 7