The Especially Deserving Poor
Dear Deborah,
A healthy debate we've started! I'm not sure we've bridged many differences, though; maybe we should change the blog's name to Bigging Differences.
In that spirit, let me float another provocative but commonsensical idea: We need to do everything we can--in our schools and in our larger social policies--to empower individuals who are working hard to climb the ladder to success. In other words, we need to spur on the strivers.
Let me explain some of my assumptions.
- As we've been discussing, I still believe in the promise of upward mobility. I don't buy into the dystopia of some on the left that pictures a future with an eviscerated middle class, opportunities only for the elite, and a vast dependent population. Times are tough now, but economic growth and jobs will return; the American Dream will be back.
- But I'm no utopian. Not all children born into poverty are going to make it out by adulthood. Most face powerful disadvantages--dysfunctional families, substance abuse, crime, segregation, broken economies, bad schools, etc.--and not everyone will be able