About Me

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New York City, New York, United States
41 year old African-American Male. I like to think of myself as a jack of all trades and a master of none...I rely on reasoned common sense, rationality and what my gut tells me is right/wrong (combined with the well reasoned opinions of others!). I don't consider myself an expert on anything in particular, but I have lots of opinions.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Turning Around Economic Dispairity

Interesting article  from The Times about how the most "selective" colleges remain bastions of economic segregation (my words) as well as a profile of efforts of Amherst to change the current dynamic.  I have always thought (and may have even discussed) the amount of wasted human capital in our country's urban and rural ghettos that's not being adequately addressed or remedied by our public policy thinkers and political leaders.  To the contrary, there has been a growing income and wealth disparity over the last few decades that continues to increase and shows not intent in subsiding unless drastic steps are taken to ameliorate the problem.  Moreover, there is significant social costs of not addressing this problem---there is obviously the lost productivity, but there is also an increased need for social services that in some respects are directly attributable to the income/wealth gap---the need for housing, medical services, basic sustenance needs (food, clothing) as well as the need for increased police (not to imply that only the poor commit crimes...we all know about the allegations against Bernie Madoff and Dominique Strauss Kahn). 

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