"declining social mobility" is correct and usable in written English.
It is most commonly used to describe the state of society in which it is increasingly difficult for people from lower economic backgrounds to move up the socioeconomic ladder. For example, "The data points to a clear trend of declining social mobility in the region as more people are unable to access the educational resources necessary for economic success."
The second big, bad consequence is declining social mobility.
But nearly everyone agrees that declining social mobility is a bad thing.
For conservative policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic, the answer to declining social mobility has been radical school reform.
David Brooks is right to raise the alarm about declining social mobility ("The Sticky Ladder," column, Jan . 25.
In the face of rising inequality, declining social mobility and stagnating real wages for middle-income earners, there are limits to what redistribution can achieve on its own.
When was the last time you heard a President citing studies showing declining social mobility between the poor and the middle class?
Especially the limitations in mobility lead to declining social interactions and sometimes feeling insecure and imprisoned at the own home.
The decline in social mobility coincided with the decline in any expression of mass class politics, which petered out with the miners' strike.
As the President pointed out last month, in a speech to the Center for American Progress, the facts are glaring: profits and productivity are rising but wages are stagnant; more and more of the nation's income is going to the top ten per cent and the top one per cent; and the United States has low (but, apparently, not declining) rates of social mobility.
Findings about the changing patterns of the employment system in the 2000s show that family background becomes increasingly important in one's successful job acquisition over time, signalling a declining trend in social mobility as an equilibrium between state power and the market has been by and large achieved since 2003.
From a trends perspective, America is suffering from a declining rate of social mobility as it becomes more and more difficult to achieve that American dream of rising from humble beginnings to achieving greatness.
