Brooks on Poverty

The New York Times' David Brooks column today is about the nature of poverty and the non-success we've had in trying to eradicate it. It is a good column.

Brooks believes we don't know how to end poverty, how to get the poor to stop behaving in self-destructive ways. A telling line, referring to the $15 trillion the Federal government has spent on poverty:

Often, the money has served as a cushion, not a ladder.

You know the old wheeze that goes "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach him to fish, he eats from then on." We've discovered many people are unwilling and/or unable to "fish," to engage in productive behaviors.