Something I've been pondering recently is whether a type of microloan system could work in the US. We spend a lot of money on the poor just to maintain their status as poor people, and not completely starving. Why not use a bunch of that money to give low or no interest loans to potential small business owners? I don't mean the stupid dream finding the next Steve Jobs in the ghetto. I mean a few thousand dollars to start a food truck, or to buy lawn mowing equipment, etc. Microloans have been shown to be effective and to have remarkable high repayment rates in poor countries, and I think the idea is adaptable here, although the required sums are certainly much greater in the developed world. Welfare buys food, but it doesn't buy dignity. Helping poor people to create wealth, which we actively destroyed for a century, might be a good place to start to try to rebuild dignity and community in the inner cities.