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July 18, 2011

"The dependence of the Black middle class on government work is going to be one of the chief threats to the health of the Black middle class as we’ve known it."

"This is one danger for the Black middle class and it's an urgent and obvious one: the good jobs are going away -- and they won't be quite as good anymore. 
The second danger is subtler but no less important.  In the past, government work served to integrate ethnic minorities and urban populations into society at large.  In the current atmosphere of sharpening debate over the role and cost of government, the ties of so much of the Black middle class to government employment may make it harder, not easier, for Blacks to take advantage of the opportunities that the emerging Red Age economy offers.  Government work doesn't build either the attitudes or the capacities that workers will need to take full advantage of in the changing economy; in some cases, it does the opposite. -- Walter Mead: Why Blue Can't Save The Inner Cities Part I @ Via Meadia

Posted by Vanderleun at July 18, 2011 6:44 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

I've spent a good chunk of my life dealing with the civil servant class.

They are as slothful, entitled, witless, and greedy as you might think them to be.

Occasionally, one dealt with a competent one. That was dumbfounding.

Posted by: Casca at July 18, 2011 8:13 PM

Usually the competent ones are driven out either by boredom or through office politics; efficiency destroys office moral.

Posted by: Peccable at July 19, 2011 5:26 AM

The much-maligned eastern part of Washington, DC actually has a number of well--tended neighborhoods populated mostly with federal workers who also happen to be black. The adjoining Prince George's county, which used to be "Redneck Central" in the old days, is heavily populated by black federal workers.

If we ever have a much-reduced federal workforce, it's going to hit these folks heavily. The reaction ain't going to be pretty.

Posted by: Don Rodrigo at July 19, 2011 10:37 AM

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