Build A Better Bootstrap

In an appearance on Bill Moyers' Journal, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, author of "Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life," lamented that economic expansion over the past few decades bypassed the U.S. middle class:

“The fact of the matter is that, as late as 1980, the top 1 percent by income in the United States had about nine percent of total national income. But since then, you’ve had increasing concentration of income and wealth to the point that by 2007 the top 1 percent was taking home 21 percent of total national income."

That prompted a well-reasoned post from an Ohio conservative who said in part:

We have to start defining economic poverty as the inability of individuals to create sufficient value for themselves and for others.

Every attempt to define poverty as a condition of income or asset level is only describing symptoms and does not lead to a comprehensive focus on the causes of poverty. Defining poverty as a condition leads to the erroneous concepts of victimization and helplessness and long term entitlements. By defining economic poverty as an individual inability we can strive to improve the four capabilities that are essential for individuals to spontaneously create value: motivation, knowledge, enterprise, and health...

No one has all of the answers and care must be given to avoid unintended consequences. But moving forward in the direction of enabling individuals to create more value will have astounding results over the next several generations.

It's worth reading the whole thing at Moyers' blog.