ABSTRACT
The study of social inequality in the United States has properly focused on the fate of African-Americans. This chapter deals with few aspects of inequality in society to set the context for a discussion of education: income, housing, criminal justice, and health care. Indirect evidence indicates that investment in public schooling can be partly offset against added costs of long-term unemployment, or can provide a partial solution to the high rate of unemployment among blacks, thereby providing a respectable cost/benefit argument for offering training services. The pressure on the African-American community is curiously functional, for Gans noted that any social system can ensure that its "dirty work" is done at low wages if there are no alternatives for part of the work force. Unless programs are specific in their intention to place the last first, African-Americans will view them with continuing caution.
