I guess that's why they pay him the big bucks

Don't you love it when Wired Magazine gets structural poverty better than David Brooks?

This week Brooks is wondering why middle-class kids (and, presumably, upper-class kids, but we don't use those words in the US where everybody is middle-class and only Bill Gates is upper-class) grow up to perform better than working-class kids (and, presumably, flat out poor kids, but we don't use those words, either). And it turns out, according to Brooks*, that it's all about the way we as parents play games with our children, the way we use words, the way we either negotiate with them or demand of them. Why, it turns out it has nothing to do with limited opportunities, differences in the school systems, the stresses of living in or on the edge of poverty, the environmental - and physical - hazards of many poor communities. Certainly it can't be due to the fact that, as even Wired Magazine ** has managed to find out, being born into poverty reduces your IQ by an average of 14 points. Or that lead poisoning, not exactly epidemic among the vast middle-class, will lop off another 9. No, no, heavens no. There's not a structural element; it's the games people play. If there were a structural element, then it would sort of be incumbent upon a just society to address it, wouldn't it? And that would be hard, and would probably require higher tax rates and yes an estate tax and universal health care and early childhood enrichment programs and all sorts of things that sound expensive and vaguely French.

Thank heavens it's just about the games people play. If it's just about the games people play that makes it your problem, Parent, not ours. Society is off the hook. Just take a few parenting classes, and play with your children more - and differently. You're doing it wrong! Don't worry about the lead-based paint. Don't worry that you're living below the poverty line. (Think that doesn't matter? Go read this Body and Soul*** piece to see how not being able to afford a pair of glasses can affect school performance.) Don't worry that your kid's high school doesn't have summer school programs (apparantly there go 6 IQ points right there). Go out and get yourself some Pictionary.

But don't come complaining. Nobody means you any harm. Today's rich don't exploit the poor, they just outperform them.****

Well. That's a relief.

*trapped behind the TimesSelect wall but 11D has kindly duplicated it here (scroll down to March 9, Rich parents, poor parents)

** the item I'm referring to is not in the on-line edition; it's Let's Play Dumb on page 50

*** If you're not already reading Body and Soul you're missing some of the most thoughtful things the web has to offer.

**** In the interest of full disclosure, I'm one of the upper-class. A politician would try to include me in the vast middle-class, but really. No. I grew up blue-collar/middle-class, but I'd have to come over here and kick my own ass if I tried to pretend I'm not living a pretty upper-class life these days.