Why is an American Professor lecturing the British? Few British researchers have read the voluminous empirical literature re. how and why 'Life Chances enhancing' policy instruments with positive short run effects inevitably fail in the medium to longer term as if in obedience to Rossi's metallic laws.

Fifteen years ago there was a danger that some young single mothers would be trapped in unemployment and make poor choices. Labour, at that time, was closer to its core constituency and introduced some measures which, though costly, did impact the expectations of such young women. However, the longer the policy continued the worse its impact. Essentially, migrants would take less desirable jobs but accumulate savings and improve their Life Chances, while those already trapped in place by Housing Policy simply satisficed and got by under a semblance of respectability which in fact did not exist since their jobs could disappear in a downturn. Thus lifechances were damaged because a different 'representative agent' became the client of the scheme. It succeeded in one sense- the original intended beneficiary, the 'young single mother' who is no longer expected to turn into a ' Welfare Queen' raising a dozen delinquent children with a score of dope smoking dropout partners' . Instead, young women see themselves as doing better not worse than others in the job market.

The problem is the middle aged who didn't take the 'dirty jobs' and got stuck in a subsidized rut. Employers don't want them. They believe migrants have a better work ethic awhile indigenous young people- including single mothers- are 'self-starters' who have an advantage in 'business winning' etc.



Why speak of heartlessness when what is involved is recognizing reality? My Doctor stopped prescribing pain-killers because my operation was over long ago. Does it mean she is heartless? No. It means she is a proper Doctor whose prescriptions are based on empirical examination.



The author, no doubt a Saintly and Erudite man, tells us he attended a Conference in France where 'the best and the brightest' discussed whether 'Work is the key'. The image he conjures up in our minds is savagely satirical because such Conferences have been known to be a heartless farce for over a hundred years.

Alfred Marshall, as a young radical, Wicksteed and countless others have exposed the stupidity of moralizing bien pensant thinking of the Committees and Conferences which prescribe painkillers in perpetuity even though some of these people aren't actually being bribed by vested interests to do so.