In a recent editorial David Brooks says,
"Equal opportunity, once core to the nation’s identity, is now a tertiary concern. If America really wants to change that, if the country wants to take advantage of all its human capital rather than just the most privileged two-thirds of it, then people are going to have to make some pretty uncomfortable decisions." http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/opinion/brooks-the-opportunity-gap.html
How would you identify the "uncomfortable decisions?"
2 comments:
The goal of the uncomfortable decision is how to best take advantage of all of our human capital. That means investing in the very people who are hurting the most in this economy; and for all of us to become more responsible with each of us paying our due. We need to make those who get money from the government to be accountable for their actions and expenditures. From industry who is awarded contracts to those receiving Medicare taking care of themselves and reading their bills. Let's first start small, and then invest in the human capital around you, take some time to teach a child or a neighbor who needs to learn how to create a resume. Lastly, vote for moral and ethical people. Take the time to read about your elected officials.
Brooks seems to think of "equal opportunity" primarily in terms of the top down: what the country can do to make use of all of its human capital. It would be better, I believe, to view it from the bottom up, in terms of giving individuals the freedom to become all that they want to be. It will be be uncomfortable for some (probably Brooks included) to give up control over mandated outcomes, and it will certainly be uncomfortable for us all to allow others the freedom to fail and to live with the results of their failures. But that is what equal opportunity means: the freedom to make of one's life whatever one chooses.
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