Shrinking the Gap at home

More email. This one said:

Here's an article from Reason about how a lot of economic activity in low-income America is not connected to the larger economy. Made me realize we have to develop new rule sets to bring disconnected communities into the American economy.

Tom says:

Caboose-braking is basically when politicians/leaders realize and fear/anticipate/respond to unrest from disconnected populations.

Comments

[Ian Rhodes]

I just finished "Off the Books" yesterday on my way home from El Salvador and wholeheartedly recommend it to the audience of Tom's blog. Anyone who has spent time in the developing world/Gap will recognize the traits of economic informality that the author describes on the South Side of Chicago during the last 10 years. Instead of Chicago, substitute "Jakarta" or "Lima" and there you are. Anyone who has spent time thinking about counterinsurgency and reads this book will recognize in detail how the muscle of a street gang combined with the legitimacy, social programs, and dispute mediation of religious leadership (read: Hezbollah) could quickly gain the local population's consent to function as a de facto local government while allowing the gang to pursue end goals generally harmful to the local population. The author answers why in detail: the population is so focused on day-to-day economic survival that they are willing to compromise and cut deals with the most unsavory characters, even though they would prefer to work with the police.

[Tom Barnett]

I must read this.

[Tom Barnett]

In a similar vein, I could recommend "Fight Club" and Scorsese's "Gangs of New York," "Goodfellas," and "The Departed."