a dearth of human capital

The most insightful way to think about poverty, in this country or anywhere else in the world, is as a dearth of human capital. True, people are poor in America because they cannot find good jobs. But that is a symptom, not the illness. The underlying problem is a lack of skills, or human capital. The poverty rate for high school dropouts in America is twelve times the poverty rate for college graduates. Why is India one of the poorest countries in the world? Primarily because 35 percent of the population is illiterate (down from almost 50 percent a decade ago). Or individuals may suffer from conditions that render their human capital less useful. A high proportion of America's homeless population suffer from substance abuse, disability, or mental illness.


Charles Wheelan. Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science by Charles Wheelan. W.W. Norton & Company. 2002. P.101