It helps to focus on a few reasons why some people earn more than others -- they work harder, and have more experience and/or more schooling.
 
   There are two workers per household in the top fifth of income distribution, but fewer than one in the bottom fifth.
 
   A kernel of truth within the income mobility confusion is that good parenting matters to a child's lifetime success. Economics Nobel laureate James Heckman notes that "good families promote cognitive, social and behavioral skills," but "single parent families are known to produce impaired children who perform poorly in school, the workplace and society at large." Yes, there are many attentive parents with low incomes who spend hours reading to toddlers, and there are negligent parents with high incomes. But many dysfunctional families do have low incomes, and collecting more taxes from functional families in order to send more transfer payments to dysfunctional families can have perverse results. Mr. Heckman points out that "generous social welfare programs . . . discourage work and hence investment in workplace based skills. . . . Subsidizing work through the EITC . . . can reduce the incentives to acquire skills and so perpetuate poverty across generations."

Jam4:4..Adulterers and adultresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with GOD? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of GOD.

    The culture of the people who were called "rednecks" and "crackers" before they ever got on the boats to cross the Atlantic was a culture that produced far lower levels of intellectual and economic achievement, as well as far higher levels of violence and sexual promiscuity.
 
    While a third of the white population of the U.S. lived within the redneck culture, more than 90% of the black population did.
 
The redneck culture proved to be a major handicap for both whites and blacks who absorbed it.

    President Johnson's famous Howard University speech, which launched the Great Society in 1965, outlined this balance of power by explicitly spelling out white responsibility without a single reference to black responsibility. In the 40 years since that speech no American president has dared correct this oversight.

    Mr. Cosby not only implied that black responsibility was the great transforming power; he also implied that there was a limit to what white responsibility could do.

    A great problem in black American life is that we have too often avoided responsibility in order to avoid shame.
 

Heb4.. 12 For the word of GOD is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Lk12... 51 "Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.
52 "For from now on five in one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three.
53 "Father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

Gal5.. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

    JOY AT WORK is a testament to the union between faith and work, and the concept of business as mission, which is exactly what the author practiced when he acted as CEO of the AES Corp, serving more than 40,000 employees in 31 countries. Dennis Bakke recounts this journey in JOY AT WORK.
 
    The JOY AT WORK Bible Study Companion, written by Brad Smith, Bill Hendricks and Ray Bakke, starts in Genesis and travels through Revelation and examines the biblical roots of work, paying special attention to the topics of stewardship and mission. The study explores how the church equips people to serve in the workplace, and how the workplace can live out the concept of business-as-mission. This book is drastically changing the way we, as believers, approach work.

    On April 7, CNET News.com reported the following: ''The University of Illinois tied for 17th place in the world finals of the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest. ''That's the lowest ranking for the top-performing U.S. school in the 29-year history of the competition. Shanghai Jiao Tong University of China took top honors this year, followed by Moscow State University and the St. Petersburg Institute of Fine Mechanics and Optics. Those results continued a gradual ascendance of Asian and East European schools during the past decade or so. A U.S. school hasn't won the world championship since 1997, when students at Harvey Mudd College achieved the honor. 'The U.S. used to dominate these kinds of programming Olympics,' said David Patterson, president of the Association for Computing Machinery and a computer science professor at the University of California at Berkeley. 'Now we're sort of falling behind.'''
 
     America today reminds me of our last Olympic basketball team -- that lackadaisical group that brought home the bronze medal.
 

    "They've ended up with an outstanding student body," says Olin fan Wayne Johnson, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s vice president for university relations. "They're exposing them to things that it might take you 10-15 years to learn in a corporation -- the whole aspect of how to develop an approach that works in an organization. It isn't just intuitive; you've got to learn how to do it."
 
    For Larry Marturano, a Motorola Inc. researcher, there is no question about the abilities of Olin senior Drew Harry, who worked last summer in the company's Schaumburg, Ill., research labs. "He was probably the best intern we ever had," Mr. Marturano says. "He had a unique combination of research maturity coupled with passion coupled with entrepreneurial spirit."
 

    Americans now feel entitled to spend nearly a third of their adult lives in retirement. Their jobs are less physically demanding than their parents' were, but they're retiring younger and typically start collecting Social Security by age 62. Most could keep working -- fewer than 10 percent of people 65 to 75 are in poor health -- but, like Bartleby the Scrivener, they prefer not to.
 
    The problem isn't that Americans have gotten intrinsically lazier. They're just responding to a wonderfully intentioned system that in practice promotes greed and sloth. Social Security is widely thought of as a kumbaya program that unites Americans in caring for the elderly, but it actually creates ugly political battles among generations.
 
    It's a personal choice, not a public battle, and the Chileans I interviewed had a saner attitude about retirement than the American baby boomers dreaming of retiring to decades of golf.
 
    A 57-year-old schoolteacher, Maria Clara Meyer, told me she was thinking of spending her 60's running her own tutoring program or setting up an ecotourism business in Chile. ''I'm a little tired of my teaching job,'' she said, ''but I'm not stupid, so I shall keep doing something. It's not healthy for you to stop working if you're still able.'' And not healthy for your country, either.

    Why has the proportion of unsocialized young males risen so relentlessly? In large part, I would argue, because the proportion of young males who have grown up without fathers has also risen relentlessly. The indicator here is the illegitimacy ratio -- the percentage of live births that occur to single women. It was a minuscule 4% in the early 1950s, and it has risen substantially in every subsequent decade. The ratio reached the 25% milestone in 1988 and the 33% milestone in 1999. As of 2003, the figure was 35% -- of all births, including whites. The black illegitimacy ratio in 2003 was 68%. By way of comparison: The illegitimacy ratio that caused Daniel Patrick Moynihan to proclaim the breakdown of the black family in the early 1960s was 24%.
 
    But illegitimacy is now common throughout the population, right? No, it is heavily concentrated in low-income groups. Perhaps illegitimacy isn't as bad as we used to think it was? No, during the last decade the evidence about the problems caused by illegitimacy has grown stronger.
 

Ex20... GOD spoke all these words, saying:
2 "I the LORD your GOD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 "You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image - any likeness that in heaven above, or that in the earth beneath, or that in the water under the earth;
5 You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the LORD your GOD, a jealous GOD, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth of those who hate Me,
6 But showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 "You shall not take the name of the LORD your GOD in vain, for the LORD will not hold guiltless who takes His name in vain.
8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 But the seventh day the Sabbath of the LORD your GOD. You shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who within your gates.
11 For six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your GOD is giving you.
13 "You shall not kill.
14 "You shall not commit adultery.
15 "You shall not steal.
16 "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that your neighbor's."

Deut11... you shall love the LORD your GOD, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgements, and His commandments always.
26 "Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:
27 "The blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your GOD which I command you today;
28 "And  the  curse,  if  you  do  not  obey the commandments of the LORD your GOD, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.

Acts5... 32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and also the Holy Ghost, whom GOD hath given to them that obey Him.

Heb5... 9 ...the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him;

Rom 2... the righteous judgment of GOD:
6 Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
(works)
7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
8 But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath.
9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
10 But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile;
11 For there is no respect of persons with GOD.
12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

Jam1... 21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
25 But whose looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
 
1Jn3... 3 And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.

13 For not the hearers of the law just before GOD, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
 
Rom3... 31 Do we then make void the law through faith? GOD forbid: yea, we establish the law.
 
Phil2... 12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
5 And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.
6 Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him.
7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.
8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.
10 In this the children of GOD are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of GOD, neither he that loveth not his brother.

1Cor6..9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of GOD? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates, nor homosexuals.
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

Wis3..16 But the children of adulterers will not reach maturity, and the seed of unlawful union will be destroyed.
17 For even if they attain length of life, they will be of no account, and in the end their old age will be without honour.
18 And if their end come swiftly, they will be without hope or consolation on the day of decision.

Sir23..22 So also with the woman who is unfaithful to her husband, and offers as heir her son by a stranger.
23 First, she has disobeyed the law of the Most High; second, she has wronged her husband; third, in her wanton adultery she has raised up children by another man.
24 Such a woman will be dragged before the assembly, and her punishment will extend to her children.
25 Her children will not take root, her branches will not bring forth fruit.
26 She will leave an accursed memory, her disgrace will never be blotted out.

    Criminality is the most extreme manifestation of the unsocialized young male. Another is the proportion of young males who choose not to work. Among black males ages 20-24, for example, the percentage who were not working or looking for work when the first numbers were gathered in 1954 was 9%. That figure grew during the 1960s and 1970s, stabilizing at around 20% during the 1980s. The proportion rose again, reaching 30% in 1999.
 
    Why has the proportion of unsocialized young males risen so relentlessly? In large part, I would argue, because the proportion of young males who have grown up without fathers has also risen relentlessly. The indicator here is the illegitimacy ratio -- the percentage of live births that occur to single women. It was a minuscule 4% in the early 1950s, and it has risen substantially in every subsequent decade. The ratio reached the 25% milestone in 1988 and the 33% milestone in 1999. As of 2003, the figure was 35% -- of all births, including whites. The black illegitimacy ratio in 2003 was 68%. By way of comparison: The illegitimacy ratio that caused Daniel Patrick Moynihan to proclaim the breakdown of the black family in the early 1960s was 24%.

    When Ronald Reagan took office, 0.9% of the population was under correctional supervision. That figure has continued to rise. When crime began to fall in 1992, it stood at 1.9%. In 2003 it was 2.4%. Crime has dropped, but criminality has continued to rise.
 

1Sam1..27 "For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition which I asked of Him.
28 "Therefore I also have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the LORD." So they worshipped the LORD there.
 
1Sam3..Now the boy Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; no widespread revelation.
7 (Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor was the word of the LORD yet revealed to him.)
8 And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. So he arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you did call me." Then Eli perceived that the LORD had called the boy.
19 So Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.
20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the LORD.
21 Then the LORD appeared again in Shiloh. For the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.
 
Mk10.."Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of GOD.
15 "Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of GOD as a little child will by no means enter it."
16 And He took them up in His arms, laid hands on them, and blessed them.
 
Gen22..9 Then they came to the place of which GOD had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood.
 
Gen28..2 "Arise, go to Padan Aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother's father; and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother.
 
1Tim3..4 One who rules his own house well, having children in submission with all reverence.
 
Tit1..6 If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination.

    As tired as one might be of hearing this, the crisis can be seen as possibly terminal for a considerable portion of black Americans at the dawn of the 21st century. Furthermore, it is not merely an economic or political problem but also a cultural, spiritual and moral one that has at its center behavior and attitudes that make far too many black men noncompetitive (except in sports and entertainment) and, perhaps, irrelevant in an increasingly complex multicultural and knowledge-based global economy.
 
    A disturbing profile that reveals too high a percentage of black men being AWOL as fathers and husbands; as disappearing from our colleges (UC Berkeley's 2004-05 freshman class had only 108 African-Americans out of 3,600 students, with less than 40 males, and not one black among the 800 entering students in engineering); as graduating from high school with an eighth-grade level of proficiency in math and reading; in prison, on probation or on parole (a third of black men in their 20s). With the HIV infection rate doubling for blacks in the past decade, as well as urban violence, hypertension, social stress and heart disease, the number of black men now trails black women by two million. And it is not as if black women are thriving; the HIV infection rate for black women is 20 times that for white women (possibly because of "down low" bisexual black males who hide the fact of their homosexuality).
 
    The columnist William Raspberry has lately urged black people to resist becoming trapped and limited by antique narratives about their lives. "For the first time in black American history," he wrote, "what we do is a greater determinant of our future than what is done to us. We need to teach that and preach that and shout that -- to our young people and ourselves. We need to take note of the immigrants -- including those from Africa and the Caribbean -- who see opportunity where too many born here see only disparity."