born poor hurts

Krugman writes about the recent findings that stress of poverty can hurt the development of the brain. In other words, being born into a poor family screws you and makes you more likely to remain poor by hurting your brain, reinforcing the economic factors that can perpetuate poverty.

And it doesn't have to be that way, as Britain under Labour has shown in reducing child poverty. Think of it as an investment - money spent on a small kid will make that kid much more likely to grow up into a productive member of society - a good employee for the elite, if nothing else...