Two Bits for Kersten: Learning from Liberals.

I wish I had a nickel for every college student I know who's been assigned to read "Nickel and Dimed," by journalist Barbara Ehrenreich. The book recounts Ehrenreich's two years working undercover at low-wage jobs such as waitress, hotel maid and Wal-Mart salesperson.
– Katherine Kersten

Never mind that granting Kersten's wish might fatten her wallet by a buck or two at most. She hurdles right over one of her favorite themes — college professors who fill impressionable minds with liberal orthodoxies, because you know a teacher would never expect a student to question what they read — to an even more favorite point — that taking personal responsibility is what separates the elite from the chaff.

And she's read a book that proves it. Adam Shepard started from nothing except youth, a private school education and $25 to amass an apartment, a junker truck and some money in the bank after ten months. Eight months after that, he's doing national media interviews for his book — Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream.

Is this a great country, or what?

I wish I had a million dollars for every college student I know who's been able to land in a strange city, immediately encounter danger and depravity, find a bed in a homeless shelter within a few hours and be able to stay there for two months, self-publish a book just over a year later and be interviewed on the Today Show even before the HarperCollins edition has been released.

Dude, it happens.

"I expected to find a lot of old, bearded men with whiskey on their breath in the shelter," said Shepard in an interview. "I was amazed at the number of young, healthy guys who just couldn't keep their hands on a dollar."

I'm not going to jump on Shepard for being young, full of himself and a bit naive. Who hasn't been there? Plenty of other commentators have pointed out his experiment benefited from advantages he doesn't want to acknowledge — health, language skills, hunkiness, Catholic college education, lack of child support obligations and secret back-pocket credit card bailout plan. He also apparently bailed on an apartment lease he'd signed and went home when his mother needed his help.

So maybe his experiment didn't go on long enough. And maybe the house bought by one his co-laborers will end up in foreclosure. But Shepard did something most people in his situation wouldn't have attempted and drew what lessons he could.

There’s a lot to be said about the current welfare state. Is the government doing enough to help our working poor? I say there are many good programs. The programs I used really helped me get back on my feet.

His plucky stories about positive attitude, managing money and self-discipline do embody positive principles of success. Kersten, however, wants to leave us with Shepard's "Too many of those on the bottom see themselves as victims."

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, "22 percent of homeless mothers had taken to the streets to avoid domestic abuse; 16 percent of single adults suffered from severe mental illness; those addicted to drugs and alcohol ranged between a third and two-thirds."

Meanwhile, here at home, through July, the number of families in Hennepin County shelters was up 25 percent from the same period last year,  and welfare program administrators see similar patterns.

For state officials, one of the surprises of the past decade was uncovering the health, mental health, domestic violence and other serious problems facing many families on assistance, [assistant commissioner at the Minnesota Department of Human Services Chuck] Johnson said. Some of those parents are now receiving specialized services and training.

"Ten years ago, I wouldn't have known the depth of the challenges people faced," Johnson said. "And we didn't foresee the shift in [racial] composition of the caseload. ... We're still learning ... and responding."

Maybe Kersten should do her own research. The reality is that opportunity in America is not a simple binary choice between unlimited possibility and total victimhood and dysfunction. It's a complex, shifting continuum.

Shepard at least gave it a look, and when he isn't being smug, he seems to have learned something from challenging the liberal book he read in college.