ABSTRACT
Devising policies, programs, and strategies so that generations of children will no longer grow up where they lack a fair chance of becoming the adults they might be represents a challenge. The approaches advocated in this book will hopefully provide people with opportunities to make the most of their human capital, the individual resources, such as abilities, education, and job skills, each of us brings to the economic marketplace (and thus collectively make the most of America’s human capital), provided they act responsibly. I believe that each of us should have the opportunity to fulfill his or her potential, achieving a life with dignity, a life with meaning. It is, however, difficult to formulate policies, programs, and strategies to deal with the fact that some people get the short straw in life on various dimensions they lack control over, but not waste funds and possibly generate unintended, negative consequences that may be worse than the original difficulties.
