Community ties boost social mobility

For a state accustomed to faring well on many economic and policy comparisons, North Carolina’s middling score on social mobility ought to make us uncomfortable.

According to a fascinating new report from the Archbridge Institute, our state ranks 23rd in fostering social mobility. Archbridge, a think tank with a mission to “lift barriers to human flourishing,” uses four categories of indicators associated with social mobility to evaluate each of the 50 states: 1) entrepreneurship and growth, 2) institutions and the rule of law, 3) education and skills development, and 4) social capital.

Archbridge president Gonzalo Schwartz and his coauthors, economists Justin Callais and Vincent Geloso, took the resulting state scores and compared them to outcome measures such as poverty, absolute mobility (the expected income rank of someone born in the 25th percentile) and relative mobility (the relationship between a parent’s income mobility rank and a child’s mobility rank).

The Archbridge score explained at least a fifth of the variation in mobility rates. The association was even stronger for poverty rates. So, yes, the study really does appear to capture key factors influencing social mobility across the country.

As for North Carolina, out best categories in the Archbridge model are entrepreneurship and growth (we rank 14th) and institutions and the rule of law (7th). Still, there remains plenty of room for improvement. Assuming the General Assembly continues to phase out the state’s tax on corporate income and lower other tax and regulatory burdens, we could soon rise into the top 10 in the first category. Another round of tort reform could nudge our rule-of-law ranking into the top five.

As for the third category, education and skills development, North Carolina ranks an unimpressive 20th. Our elementary and middle-school students took big tumbles in reading and math scores during the COVID lockdown, a tumble from which they have yet to recover. The Archbridge study also includes rates of out-of-wedlock births and single parenthood here — as it should, given the strong statistical association between family structure and mobility — so state policymakers should think hard about how to remove the many disincentives to marriage still embedded in our tax code and welfare programs.

It is the social-capital category, however, where North Carolina exhibits a truly dismal performance. We rank 40th in the “community activities and neighbors” subcategory and 42nd in the “charity” subcategory.

Now, to say that our state fares poorly on these measures is not necessarily to say state and local policymakers can and should attempt to foster community ties or philanthropic effort. Government isn’t the primary stage for such activities. It is civil society — extended families, neighborhood groups, religious congregations, relief organizations, workplaces, sports leagues, arts groups, and other institutions that form what ought to be a thick slice of voluntary association between the lone individual and the coercive state.

We can all do our part to make North Carolina more congenial to social mobility. We can get to know our neighbors better. We can give more of our time and money to worthy causes. We can pursue new interests and hobbies likely to bring us into contact with a wider variety of people than we’d otherwise meet in our professional and personal lives. We can prioritize active participation in community activities over solo entertainments.

Why do I assume North Carolinians can build a more vibrant civil society? Because most other places have already done so. Consider the fact that America’s top-ranked state climates for social mobility are Utah, Vermont, and Montana. Each ranks in the top three in social capital, too, despite obvious differences between, say, the progressive culture of the Green Mountain State and the Latter-Day Saints of the Beehive State.

Our own Tar Heel State boasts a range of rich cultures and religious traditions. Our philanthropic sector is broad and varied, as well, but under-resourced. Want to help the next generation rise and thrive? Join the club — by which I mean, literally, join a new club. Or seven.

John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy and American history.