Government Contractors Prosper, Hispanics Struggle in a Country Growing More Bifurcated
Mike Gonzalez /
Sunday’s front page of The Washington Post carried two very different yet related stories about what is happening in our country. The fact they shared this prized journalistic real estate on the same day is no coincidence.
One is a story about the ravages of bad nutrition and obesity among Hispanics using food stamps in South Texas. All the families featured in the story are led by single mothers — in fact, no father ever appears — and are on government assistance. Chillingly, Mexican-Americans have dubbed this part of Texas “El Futuro.”
The other story is about the proliferating “Super Zips” around Washington, D.C., an area of government contractors where the median income is $200,000, the father is around and, in fact, both parents have graduate degrees and work.
Unless we draw attention to what is happening, this is indeed the future we will face: a bifurcated country with an under-educated lower class, where Hispanics will be overrepresented, and on top a professional, college-educated knowledge class — their separate futures predetermined.
Both these phenomena are the result of political action — at the bottom is the reality we have created through government programs (notwithstanding how well intended they may have been) that encourage family breakup and out-of-wedlock births, and discourage the creation of social and human capital. On top, at least in D.C., where Super Zips are proliferating, is a cadre of government contractors benefiting from the rapid growth of government.