Lately, as I come up out of the train station on my way to work, there is a woman who stands there in the walkway, with a little kid in a stroller. Of course, they have the sign out- asking for money. Today, the kid was crying. She wanted something, and the woman was saying "I don't have it". My reaction to this scene is confusion... on the one hand, I want to kill the woman for doing this to the kid (making her spend her summer days standing in a dim, dank, station tunnel while mama works her con, using the kid as a prop). I also wanted to go over, find out what their problem was, and give them enough dough to not have to stand in the station ever again. At least, for the kid's sake. Unfortunately, even if I did have the ability to blindly throw money at problems, we know from plenty of other real-world examples, that this just doesn't work. Look at the school systems- schools with some of the highest per student expenditures still have the worst performing students. Change must come from within.
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