Glenn Reynolds

The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we__l have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren__ causes of middle-class status, they__e markers for possessing the kinds of traits _ self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. _ that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn__ produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them.