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Which candidate is likelier to provided the law, order, and jobs necessary to help our poorest? The one who wants more business regulations or less? The one who wants to defund police or support them? Believe your lyin' eyes.

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Aside from “affirmative action” policies targeted mainly to blacks over the past 50 years or so, most of the policies intended to reduce poverty have been appropriately colorblind and based on income. Going forward, as a centrist I would support (a) more progressive taxes at the state and local levels, (b) increased emphasis on education in PRACTICAL skills not requiring 4 years or more of college, and (c) federal funding of local facilities to provide basic shelter to homeless people. But I don’t trust woke Democrats to support such policies in a way that is fiscally responsible and truly colorblind. For them, enough is never enough, until the impossible goal of total equality in every facet of society is achieved.

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Thank you for this I am glad there is data to support what is common sense. I guess that is why we are in the mess we are in. There is very little common sense that is driving both parties

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We need to be sure that we don't over focus on mobility. Mobility means you can get out of the bottom rungs and move up. That is also the idea of the " meritocracy". But we don't want a hunger games economy where the top 10% or even the top 50% have a beautiful life but the bottom 30% have a horrible life. By definition, everyone can't be in the top 30% or top 10%.

We can all agree that a hard working and highly talented child from any background should be able to rise high . We can agree that a hard working competent child from any background should be able to become middle class. But wait! everyone can't be middle class. So we need to think about what makes life for the lower middle/working class decent and dignified and meaningful.

For the lower middle/working class, it can't just be about government handouts ( the democrats favorite answer to every question). It's also about functional communities, marriage rates, good public schools. Globalization, de industrialization and uncontrolled immigration is playing a role in undermining communities and surely contributing to rising rents.

Let's talk about the demise of main streets and small independent businesses in the decline of the lower middle class. Jobs in the Amazon warehouse are not the same as jobs in the family owned hardware store. We need to get real about the oligarchic monopolistic plantation economy that has been created ( by billionaires who now support the DNC!). Mobility for the few, hand outs for the rest, that is not the answer that brings back dignity the majority - the bottom 50%.

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It certainly seems that some communities have been held back or stagnant (ignored) while others have been allowed to improve. It's hard not to see this as zero sum when one party purposefully ignores some communities for decades. Instead of everyone moving up at the same time, we must wait until everyone is the same amount of poor.

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Very interesting article. Im going to share it with some friends.

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