Suppose (for a moment) that you took the average middle class person from the suburbs, eliminated their wealth, and put them into a position where they had to work for a dramatically lower wage ... How many years do you think it would take for the average individual in this position to return to a middle-class lifestyle?
The unfortunate thing that a lot of people don't realize is that socio-economic status has far more to do with a person's values and beliefs that are built from a very early age than with a person's physical wealth. This is why people with certain backgrounds can go from being penny-less refugees that don't speak the language to being university educated upper middle-class within one generation, and other people with different backgrounds have difficulty making progress regardless of how much time passes.
The problem with Afirmative Action and other programs designed to eliminate inequity based on ethnic backgrounds is that it tries to elevate the status of a particular group without changing the values or beliefs that are really what is holding that group back. If you take a person who has a poor understanding of money and double their income then they (often) waste their money and don't build any real wealth, they can't educate their children on how money really works, and the benefit provided is temporary (at best). As an example of this, all you have to do is look at the number of famous entertainers who come from (very) poor backgrounds, and examine how many of these people retained their wealth for their entire life and their children were able to maintain the lifestyle their parents provided for them ...
If you notice I tried to be very careful and not associate any problems or strenghts with any particular ethnic group because there are people from all ethnic backgrounds that have beliefs that make them successful and beliefs that hold them back ... For example, everyone is aware of "White Trash" who fall into the same financial and personal traps that hold back a lot of people with a similar socio-economic standing.
