Income Inequality Is a Symptom, Not The Disease

Harvard  professor Robert Putnam has some revealing data in his book "Our Kids" that echoes the themes about which Charles Murray has been writing. Namely that America is becoming rigid. It is settling into immobile classes that don’t mix.  Not in neighborhoods, not in schools, not in marriage and not in work. 

The current fad is to focus on "Income Inequality". But this is focusing on the symptoms of a disease, not the disease itself.  It's akin to providing pain killers to cancer victims rather than chemo therapy . The disease is a growing class of people who, for a whole host of reasons other than not having much money, engage in adverse behaviors. Worse, they "infect" their children with those behaviors, as the two charts below demonstrate. 

AA figured this out out a long time ago. You can cite a dozen reasons why you're an alcoholic (including bad genes from your parents), but you can't stop being one until you take some personal responsibility for your condition.