As a guy who grew up in Lake Forest, Illinois, I am probably considered by some a traitor to my class.

After all, I’m a vocal opponent of the “educational apartheid” practiced by suburban soccer moms and their emasculated husbands. The school district, as an entity, is one of the most racist inventions of modern society. But it does keep out the riff-raff.

I also despise much of what Corporate America stands for. It’s not because I hate capitalism. I actually think capitalism is great. I’m simply looking for a corporate chieftain who shares my views. The only ones I find are those who support “capitalism for me, but not for thee.” You know who I mean. The super-powered BSDs (figure it out folks) who think they are masters of the universe because of their ability to manipulate financial instruments while their 2nd (trophy) wives work on the PTO to keep out the riff-raff.

You can imagine then, my consternation when so-called “socialist” countries are doing a better job of supporting the American Dream (conceptually) than America. For my part, I am an idealistically motivated supporter of the American Dream, and I appreciate folks on any side of the aisle who are interested in protecting and promoting it.

With a Democratic Party supporting Union bureaucrats and total bureaucratization, and a Republican party supporting a greedy corporate mind-set interested in the carving up freedom of commerce in exchange for political bailouts and protection, where does one go for reinvigorating the “American Dream?”

You get better information on that score from overseas than you do here.

American dream needs repair

Creating an Opportunity Society begins by showing that, especially for the poorest children, this is something of a myth. By international standards, intergenerational mobility in the US is quite low. This will surprise few who have ventured into a US public housing project or troubled inner-city school, but many middle-class Americans never have. The figures show that US children born in the lowest and highest quintiles of the income distribution are more likely to stay there than in Britain, for example, and much more likely than in countries such as Sweden and Denmark.

But what to do about it? The book confirms a finding well established in the literature, that transition to the middle class is all but guaranteed for poor children if they do three things: finish high school, work full time and marry before having children. The US underperforms as an opportunity society because so many of its young people fail at one or more. The book focuses on these areas.

The first paragraph sounds liberal, and the second sounds conservative. Could it be that both are right? Probably.

As the coming fiscal emergency takes shape, something will have to be done. No choices adequate to the scale of the problem will be easy. The great virtue of this book – a comprehensive policy manual and the outline of a new social contract – is not just in recognising that upward mobility in the US is less than it should be, but is in calling for action, and in insisting on fiscal discipline. Its real strength is its distinctively American remedies, with their emphasis on rewarding effort rather than idleness, and insisting on personal responsibility.

This blend of liberal and conservative themes will draw fire from partisans on both sides. But in the middle it could win bipartisan public support, and deserves to. Centrism need not be feeble. It can be bold and muscular. Policies from the radical centre are exactly what the US needs.

Policy Nirvana - the “radical center.” Sort of like “Extreme Wisdom,” huh?