Root Cause
A town charges a high fee to take the test needed to get a driver's license. Poor families cannot afford this fee, so they cannot drive to work at the high-paying jobs outside of town.
What is the root cause stopping these families from moving up financially?
A) High cost of the license
B) People not wanting to work
C) Moving to a different state
D) Clean air laws
A) High cost of the license
What does economic mobility actually measure?
A person's ability to change their financial status over time
Name one basic need that often takes up the largest part of a family's budget.
Housing (rent/mortgage)
This visual, interactive tool created by Harvard researchers maps which American neighborhoods offer children the best chance to rise out of poverty.
Opportunity Atlas
A city funds its schools using local property taxes. Wealthy neighborhoods get great schools, while poor neighborhoods get underfunded schools with few resources, preventing poor students from getting high-paying jobs later in life.
What is the root cause limiting the economic mobility of the students in poor neighborhoods?
A) Equal opportunity
B) Temporary job loss
C) Unequal school funding
D) Moving to a new city
C) Unequal school funding
If a child grows up to earn a higher income than their parents did, what kind of mobility did they experience?
Upward mobility
What is one major reason people may struggle to save money even when they work full-time?
Low wages or a high cost of living, high taxes
This historical, discriminatory housing practice used red lines on maps to deny mortgages to Black neighborhoods, cementing generational wealth gaps.
redlining
A fast-growing city implements strict zoning laws that ban the construction of multi-family apartment buildings. This causes housing prices near the city's booming tech sector to skyrocket, forcing working-class families to live in distant suburbs with poorly funded public services.
Which of the following is the root cause restricting the economic mobility of these working-class families?
A) Structural unemployment
B) Exclusionary zoning
C) Capital flight
D) Hyperinflation
B) Exclusionary zoning
If a country has "low intergenerational mobility," what does that mean for its citizens?
Children are highly likely to stay in the same financial class as their parents.
Rising rent faster than wages is an example of what economic challenge?
Housing affordability
This urban phenomenon occurs when wealthier people move into a poor neighborhood, driving up rent and displacing long-time residents.
gentrification
A developing nation experiences a rapid shift toward automated agriculture. The government provides specialized retraining grants exclusively to workers who already hold a high school diploma, leaving the country's large population of illiterate rural laborers with no pathway to enter the modernizing workforce.
Which of the following describes the root cause constraining the economic mobility of the rural laborers?
A) Companies having a monopoly on hiring workers
B) Overall price increases caused by rising wages
C) New technology favoring highly skilled workers
D) Economic damage caused by discovering natural resources
C) New technology favoring highly skilled workers
What is the actual household income cutoff for a family of four to be officially classified as living in poverty in NYC?
$47,190
Why is affordable public transportation important for economic mobility?
It helps people access jobs, schools, healthcare, and other opportunities.
These are local city laws that decide what can be built where, often banning affordable apartments in wealthy neighborhoods.
zoning laws
A country has extremely high income inequality. Because wealthy families have massive political influence, they successfully lobby the government to eliminate inheritance taxes and cut funding for public infrastructure. As a result, the boundary between social classes hardens, and the relationship between a parent's income and their child's future income grows significantly stronger.
Which of the following describes the root cause or concept that explains this low economic mobility?
A) High inequality naturally causing low mobility
B) Lower tax rates automatically increasing government revenue
C) High inflation naturally leading to lower unemployment
D) Economic growth automatically fixing inequality over time
A) High inequality naturally causing low mobility
What is it called when someone changes jobs but stays in the exact same income level?
Horizontal mobility
How can limited access to quality education contribute to economic disparities?
It can reduce opportunities for higher-paying jobs and career advancement.
This sociological concept describes how wealthy communities legally separate themselves from a larger city to form their own independent towns, allowing them to keep all of their local tax dollars exclusively for their own schools and public services.
municipal incorporation/wealth hoarding