Throughout the centuries, social class and mobility have always been a major concern for Americans. Today it is known that social mobility has remained more or less the same as in recent decades. Social mobility, for starters, is defined as a movement, up or down, in social class. Social mobility is strongly influenced by the level of openness within a society, where a person can gain their social status through their own efforts. We often think to ourselves that the United States is a place with a lot of social mobility and equal opportunity. However, ironically, this is not true. According to a chart from a 2005 New York Times series on income mobility, the United States ranks second to last in the rate of improvement in income or poor families over the past four generations. Professor Kathryn Wilson, associate professor of economics at Kent State University, states that: “people like to think that America is the land of opportunity. The irony is that our country actually has less social mobility and more inequality than most developed countries.” Social mobility can be classified into three groups: vertical mobility, horizontal mobility and lateral mobility. Vertical mobility refers to the upward or downward movement of an individual or group's social or economic class. Those who gain property, income, status and position are considered “upward mobile” while those who move in the opposite direction are considered “downward mobile”. Horizontal mobility refers to the movement of an individual or group from one location to another but within the same social level. On the other hand, lateral mobility refers to the geographic movement of an individual or group between neighborhoods, cities, or regions. One million... half the paper... millions of people out of poverty, there are many families who continue to suffer from poverty despite receiving these programs. This is the result of many people working in jobs that pay low wages and the increase in single-parent families. As a nation, there are many things we can do to help improve social mobility. One thing that can significantly improve social mobility is reducing inequality. Everyone deserves a chance and equal opportunities, regardless of social class or skin color. If we want change, we should focus on changing ourselves first. We should change the stereotypical image we have of a certain racial group. For example, African Americans are usually seen as uneducated “thugs,” while Arabs are seen as terrorists. We need to focus on changing ourselves so we can actually see change in the world.