Looking Back (and Ahead) With Edwards
By George F. Will
It won't surprise you to learn that I disagree with Wills use of the language of paradigms here. Whether Edwards knows about James Q. Wilson's work here is hardly the most telling point.
It doesn't look as if Will is aware of the poverty studies over the past forty years coming out of the University of Wisconsin and other places. irp.wisc.edu.
Like all serious studies of social issues, the data don't fall neatly around the concept of paradigms. But it's reasonably safe to say two conclusions are apparent. First, when accessible jobs opened up, the poor rushed to get them. And so long as those jobs remained viable, the poverty roles were reduced. Thus, certain kinds of job expansion are critical. And, by reverse inference, their absence explains a lot of what Wills calls "behavior-driven poverty."
Second, when social services such as housing, medical attention, education, etc., were provided at reasonable levels, not the meager levels of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. Well, to be more specific the meager levels at the outset and the pitifully meager levels by the end of the century. When these were provided at reasonable levels, the behaviors Wills considered the cause of poverty were reduced. Not at much as I would like but much more than Wills use of the term "paradigm" suggests.
That's one of the reasons Tommy Thompson's efforts when he was Wisconsin's governor interested so many. He drew on these studies. He didn't do what needed to be done but his work was informed by them. |
