Theodore Dalrymple, a doctor who has worked with the British underclass for years, writes in City Journal of the relationship of the welfare state to social disorganization, the unhappiness of the poor, and the elite's  refusal to acknowledge its role in the destruction of the lives of the underclass and the social fabric of British society. We should take his  trenchant observations to heart.The  trend toward divorcing personal responsibility from outcomes is as true here as it is Britain. And the consequences the same. 

Clarice Feldman   11 22 04