The welfare state, and particularly the housing projects that come with it, have created a downward spiral for all Americans. Those living in the projects are essentially sentenced to a life of crime, poverty, and misery and so are their children and their children's children. They grow up not knowing anything other than living off of the government.

Those not living in the projects, but living near the projects can look forward to a crumbling city center, over-burdened schools, over-burdened emergency services, and an end to the American ideal of a "hometown."

The dirty little secret, of course, is that more often than not so-called "city fathers" are the ones profiting from the housing projects because they manage the properties.

Talk about a "corrupt bargain."

For what it's worth, this year Washington DC ceased to be majority African-American. This was widely touted by local politicians as a bad thing.

You are spot on. I grew up in a nice area of a rather large city that was in a state of continuous decay. My group of friends all attended Catholic school so we wouldn't have to deal with the public schools, and even though we all had families with deep roots in that city, we never truly felt part of the local fabric. And yes, the "city fathers" did push for and profit from the construction and maintenance of the clusters of high-rise projects that dotted various areas of the city. They also got the votes of the people who lived in those projects. Nevertheless, it's kind of insulting to insinuate that by virtue of a larger income, those that live in more affluent areas are necessarily the "better sort", and that living in close proximity such people is beneficial. It is well known, for instance, that many affluent students also come from broken homes, or dysfunctional families, use drugs, and exist almost from birth with a sense of entitlement that they are special and can do whatever they please without limits. They can count of overly indulgent parents to get them out of trouble, and are more likely to threaten lawsuits over even minor infractions. Also, and this is just a personal observation-less affluent students who do go to school with the more affluent tend to get into trouble trying to emulate the conduct and habits of their"superiors."

"mentor a struggling family", we were just trying to do that with a relative this past week. It is stunning to realize how kids raised by welfare parents have so little drive. It is almost like they come from another world. Bad week. Afraid we didn't do any good.

Welfare shuts people off. It makes them non-functional, and it makes their kids non-functional with no desire to do or achieve anything. They come with expectations and have no understanding of putting forth effort to achieve things.

I appreciate the advice to preach what we practice (not that I'm rich, but I do live in a well-to-do and isolated area). This, however, is wishful sentimentality:

Life sequestered from anybody not like yourself tends to be self-limiting. Places to live in which the people around you have no problems that need cooperative solutions tend to be sterile.

No, those places are beautiful and wonderful. When I visit a friend who lives crammed up against her boorish neighbors, teenagers walk around wearing little and screaming obscenities. I fail to see how my children's lives would be enriched by living among them.

Personally, I believe that movies and ubiquitous TV -- can hardly get away from it even to eat a meal in a restaurant -- have corrupted all classes to the point where it's advisable to choose friends carefully and particularly to structure your life so that your children find good ones.

Values. It's all about values.

Values would solve 80% of our problems, especially including the financial ones.

P.S. a great place to accomplish some of Murray's advice is church, where classes can mix without some of the things that induce the SuperZIPS not to.

"Isn’t this the true conservative solution?"

No. The conservative approach to this issue is to say, hey, people are responsible for themselves, so those people over there need to haul themselves out of the ghetto; I have no obligation to spend a single minute or a single dime on anything other than my own family. In fact, any attention at all to the class divide, even if it doesn't go beyond simple statements of the truth, is seen as "class warfare" by a certain element of the right.

This might, however, be the *social*-conservative solution, given that social conservatism is dedicated to interference with others' lives.

"Our class divisions are increasingly framed by differences in marriage and family status, with rich and poor inhabiting entirely separate cultures."

When *wasn't* this true? My parents grew up in areas that were lower-middle-class and almost exclusively white. Poor people lived somewhere else and went to different schools. So did rich people. So did black people of whatever economic stratum. Is this really so much worse today?

And each culture - as is it's right - has chosen their way knowing full well the consequences of their choice. Murray's piece is fantasyland - "it takes a village" nonsense. To put my family at risk so that we can "model" the proper behavior for ungrateful, entitled, angry, violent morons is pure nonsense. The vast majority of white Liberals have enough money to insulate themselves from the rest of the Democrat special interest groups and dependents, just like all Republicans aspire to.