Arthur Brooks > Quotes

“Get your education (at least your basic education) completed, get a job, get married, have kids—in that order. If you do that, your odds of becoming poor—and of not climbing the ladder of opportunity into the middle class—are slim.”
― Arthur Brooks, Poverty in America and What to Do About It

“For poor parents trapped in dangerous and underperforming urban school systems, it is pretty clear that school choice works.”
― Arthur Brooks, Poverty in America and What to Do About It

“long-term unemployed should be provided training and then placed in jobs through wage-subsidy programs”
― Arthur Brooks, Poverty in America and What to Do About It

“If you want to raise successful kids, especially boys, you have just one job: love his mom”
― Arthur Brooks

“In California, more than 283,000 teachers and roughly 23,000 administrators work in an education sector that consumes nearly 40 percent of the state’s entire general fund.”
― Arthur Brooks, Poverty in America and What to Do About It

“What I need to do, in effect, is stop seeing my life as a canvas to fill, and start seeing it more as a block of marble to chip away at and shape something out of. I need a reverse bucket list. My goal for each year of the rest of my life should be to throw out things, obligations, and relationships until I can clearly see my refined self in its best form.”
― Arthur Brooks

“change in the income distribution across all households says little about how people are faring in absolute terms at the bottom of the distribution.”
― Arthur Brooks, Poverty in America and What to Do About It

“unemployment benefit programs have to be supplemented by skills training and greater help with matching workers to jobs.”
― Arthur Brooks, Poverty in America and What to Do About It

“paying every teacher a bonus up-front and then taking the money back from subpar performers can be even more effective than conventional after-the-fact rewards.”
― Arthur Brooks, Poverty in America and What to Do About It

“consumption inequality is a lot narrower than income inequality.”
― Arthur Brooks, Poverty in America and What to Do About It

“the quality of local public education is improved in areas where there is more competition due to a large number of school districts or a greater availability of nonpublic education.”
― Arthur Brooks, Poverty in America and What to Do About It

“47 million people live in poverty in America today.”
― Arthur Brooks, Poverty in America and What to Do About It