The Opportunity Society

A recent Washington Post op-ed piece by the well-known economist Lawrence Summers (left), "Changing focus to inequalities in opportunity," hits an important nail on the head. What's really of more importance, he asks, equality of outcomes or equality of opportunity? Summers says the latter ought to be the focus of attention today.

Liberals have long sought outcomes equality. If some groups of people have less income or wealth than other groups, then the government ought to step in and redistribute same.

Conservatives rue redistributive government programs because they impose a drag on the economy: successful entrepreneurs are penalized by the taxes and other measures that take money from the rich to give to the not-so-rich. There is less incentive to succeed.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of that ongoing dispute, Summers says disparities of wealth and income have been increasing, not decreasing ... and that's bad. It hurts American competitiveness, among other complaints.

"It is hard to see who could disagree with the aspiration to equalize opportunity," Summers writes, "or fail to recognize the manifest inequalities in opportunity today."

If "widening inequality jeopardizes the legitimacy of our political and economic system," as progressives claim, conservatives who insist there is nothing wrong with "success on a grand scale" should likewise be alarmed. America needs as many of its citizens as possible primed at a young age for success.

If only the children on the ever-narrower top rungs of the ladder get the best preparation for success in life, the whole country is worse off. There will be less innovation, less entrepreneurship, less economic dynamism.

What's the solution? "The global track record of populist policies motivated by inequality concerns is hardly encouraging," Summers points out, and "inequality is likely to continue to rise, even with all that can responsibly be done to increase tax burdens on those with high incomes and redistribute the proceeds. Fairness-oriented measures that are high on the usual liberal agendas today "are unlikely to even hold at bay the trend toward increasing inequality." So we need to focus a lot more than we do on equality of opportunity.

But how? "The number of children not born into the top 1 percent who move into it must equal the number of children born into the top 1 percent who move out of it over their lifetimes," Summers urges. "So a serious program to promote equal opportunity must seek to enhance opportunity for those not in wealthy families and to address some of the advantages currently enjoyed by the children of the fortunate."

Yes ... but, again, how?

"By far the most important step that can be taken to enhance opportunity is strengthening public education. For the past decade we have focused on ensuring that no child is left behind. This effort must continue, but if everyone is to have a real chance for great success we must also ensure that every child in public school can learn as much and go as far as his or her talent permits."

That means, Summers says, "judging schools on measures beyond the fraction of students who exceed some minimum." We need to supplement — or rethink — No Child Left Behind.

And the nation's leading colleges and universities — Summers teaches at Harvard and is its past president — should "make the kind of focused commitment to economic diversity that they have long mounted toward racial diversity. It is unrealistic to expect that schools [like Harvard] that depend on charitable contributions will not be attentive to offspring of their supporters. Perhaps though, the custom could be established that for each 'legacy slot' room would be made for one 'opportunity slot'."

Those are good, solid, specific recommendations, but what seems most important to me is that here is a goal that liberals and conservatives ought to be able to join hands over. It is also something Catholics who want to promote social justice should be foursquare behind. If either President Obama or Mitt Romney would make it the centerpiece of his election campaign, the entire country would cheer.