Some will argue that this issue of social mobility is a red herring and we would be better served by a focus on economic growth and increasing the absolute size of the economy rather than how the growth is shared! I disagree, as inequalities of wealth, income, and consumption impair economic growth in the long run by reducing consumers’ purchasing power which is the heartbeat and engine of our capitalist system.

Social mobility can be defined as any change in social position measured for example by income, wealth, consumption, occupation, health or education.

In this regard, there has been a long-held perception among Jamaica’s working class that class and social position determines one’s social mobility with many Jamaicans, professional and working class, seeing migration overseas as their only salvation. Post the 1990s economic crisis, some will now even argue that social mobility across generations is declining!

The data to support this perception is mixed however*, as while for example the poverty rate of 17.1 per cent for 2016 is the lowest since 2009 it is higher than the rate of 9.9 per cent recorded in 2007.

Another positive is that the Gini coefficient, a widely accepted measure of income inequality of a nation’s residents, has improved albeit marginally from .03941 in 2010 to 0.3803 in 2015.

While this perception of reduced social mobility and increasing inequality can therefore be disputed, there is undoubtedly growing working class pessimism about the chances of improving their social mobility.

This can be primarily attributed to unequal access to higher education (less than 10 per cent of secondary school graduates go on to tertiary education) and a dearth of economic or financial opportunities due primarily to anemic economic growth, which has stagnated in the single digits for decades, with real GDP per capita still below the high reached in 1972.

In this context of income inequality and social immobility, our human capital remains underutilised and underdeveloped with many investment and business opportunities going unexploited.

This status quo also undermines productivity, personal empowerment, individual self-esteem, social and financial inclusion as well as trust in the sociopolitical system with demonstrable negative consequences for crime, poverty, and democratic participation.

The following three recommendations are being posited as important to our collective efforts as a society to improve social mobility.

1. Identify the areas in education that will give the highest return on our investment, for example:

a. improving our primary school literacy and numeracy results as this is the foundation on which further human development rests;

b. mandatory post-secondary youth service and technical training programmes that target the large number of secondary school graduates who become unemployed or underemployed and;

c. implement adult retraining programmes in sought-after skills such as accountancy and finance that can help cushion the negative impact of life events and technological disruption on disadvantaged workers and their offspring.

The required policy response is therefore not confined to simply spending more overall (which is impatient of debate) but rather to target spending on effective programmes and ensuring their quality and equality of access.

2. Policies affecting economic growth, financial inclusion, and savings are an important tool for enhancing social mobility and financial participation. Despite 78 per cent of Jamaicans owning bank accounts, only 11 per cent have borrowed in the last year and only 25 per cent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 10 per cent of farmers have access to credit. Avenues to redress these inequities would involve, inter alia:

a. developing venture capital funding vehicles via public-private partnerships to provide funding for SMEs and micro-businesses which will help to reduce the informal sector and improve Jamaica’s tax efficiency;

b. greater tax incentives for longterm savings and reintroducing tax credits for life insurance which is a major conduit for long term savings, and;

c. developing tax deferred individual health accounts (for the more than 80 per cent of Jamaicans who have no health insurance) as a means of improving access to health care which is a prerequisite for social mobility.

3. Fostering social mobility also requires policies to reduce the twin evils of crime and corruption as evidenced by, among others, Jamaica’s murder rate being the fifth highest in the world and bribes passing hands in broad daylight outside many of our tax collectorates. This necessitates a range of well-coordinated strategies that will target:

a. police involvement in taxis and bus transportation that fuels the current chaos and law breaking on our roads

b. the scourge of gang-involved murders that drive over 80 per cent of all murders in Jamaica and is driven by the crime incubator of garrison communities;

c. the under resourcing of our police force and justice system in terms of personnel, technology, and vehicles, and;

d. implementing a no tolerance policy for corruption by politicians and the business community that facilitates so much of the corruption that is a daily feature of the lives of Jamaicans.

Finally, I return to the importance of our education system to social mobility. In this regard, our current education system with a plethora of low-performing primary and secondary schools is unable to contribute effectively to improving social mobility.

As a country, our primary focus therefore needs to be on the creation of an education system where equal resources in our schools translate to equal prospects and outcomes for our students.

Failure to do so casts doubt on our motto, “Out of many, One people” on which our societal ideals of social mobility, empowerment, and inclusion rests.

Hugh Reid, FCCA, is a management consultant