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The discussion is nice to talk about the problem but what can we do about it?  I think one way is to provide scholarships to students for those who are trapped in the poor education system.  This provides a path to some of those who have the potential and something we as individuals can do.  Although I think Buffets idea is nice in theory, in practice you run into roadblocks.

 

Yeah, scholarships do seem to be one good way. It's charity but it's not a hand out as it requires something of the recipient.

 

Buffett's idea seems completely insane to me. Education as a product is not any different than any other product. Making private schools illegal and drawing on a lottery is no different than making shoe manufacturers illegal and drawing a lottery for government shoes. What kind of shoes would you get? What kind of selection would there be? It kind of reminds me of Obamacare in that people think that insurance can be offered to 40 million more people and aggregate costs go down. As if there is something about insurance that makes it an exception to fundamental facts about reality (products have value and therefore have costs).

 

I really respect Buffett's investment acumen but when it comes to politics he is dishonest. Remember that claim he often makes that his secretary pays more in taxes than he does? Of course, he ignores the facts that all of the companies he owns pay tax, and then he pays tax on top of that. Buffett is a genius and he certainly understands double taxation so why would he make a claim that he knows is false? The only answer I can come up with is that he's dishonest in the realm of politics. As such, I take everything he says in this area with a grain of salt. His willingness to mislead on the topic of taxation colors my opinion of everything he says about politics.

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That is a good point, Jay.

 

In 2005, the typical household defined as poor by the government had a car and air conditioning. For entertainment, the household had two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR. If there were children, especially boys, in the home, the family had a game system, such as an Xbox or a PlayStation.[4] In the kitchen, the household had a refrigerator, an oven and stove, and a microwave. Other household conveniences included a clothes washer, clothes dryer, ceiling fans, a cordless phone, and a coffee maker.

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/07/what-is-poverty

 

In my opinion the source of a lot of inequality is the Federal Reserve. The money they print clearly raises the income of those in the financial sector much much much more than it does the poor.