I suppose I'm just another middle class white male who doesn't get it. Ruhle has a college degree and some graduate training. Her article proves her ability to write well and communicate ideas forcefully. But she has never held a job. She claims to be disabled, but doesn't say in what way. She is able to traipse all over New York City to look for a better and cheaper apartment.The ADA provides recourse for job hiring discrimination against the disabled. But she still doesn't have a job. Why not?

Next, Ruhle assumes that her son will not be able to succeed because he is raised in poverty. But he is an excellent student at a school for gifted children. He will certainly be able to attend good or even excellent colleges. Why would he be doomed to fail? Doesn't she see the advantages she has given her son compared with her neighbors? She raises only one child, she has time to spend with him, and she provides books and probably discusses them with him. The other kids in the ghetto don't have those things, and that's what Traub wrote about in the New York Times Magazine. Before stomping on Traub's writing and beliefs, Ruhle should have looked around her neighborhood, talked with some children and parents, and talked with school teachers and social workers. Then she would realize that for the most part, Traub's reporting was correct.

-- Gregory Tetrault

Ruhle gave birth to her child a year after being disabled, which strongly implies that she conceived him after being disabled and unable to work. If she did this in the context of a secure marriage with a partner who had thought through the issues and was committed to providing for them, this decision would make perfect sense. But Ruhle seems almost proud to announce that she has never been married.

I feel bad that Ruhle's child has to suffer the consequences of her many bad decisions, but I don't see that the rest of us who have exercised the least bit of responsibility in our own lives should be required to subsidize her bad decisions by giving her more "housing, health care, child care and jobs programs."

-- Travis J.I. Corcoran

While I did not grow up in the slums of New York, I did grow up poor white trash in the Pacific Northwest. I was able to pull myself away and pursue a life beyond the class I was born into. What I could never understand was why, every time I created an opportunity for myself, I failed. Well, because it's exactly as Caroline Ruhle writes: poor children learn that they can't get what they want and they learn to not try and to not expect anything. I didn't feel I deserved a great job or the well-to-do boyfriend, or the nice apartment and would do things to insure that I stayed in the class where I belonged. When I've explained my experience to my friends, they don't understand. They also see me as middle class though I still do not see myself that way. Now I know someone does understand and that I'm not crazy. Thank you.

-- Beau Ruland

You may be a ghetto mom but you've just come up with a topic for a Ph.D. thesis. You've hit the nail on the head. No one, absolutely no one gets anywhere in this world without the help or advantage given by someone else. Does anyone truly believe George W. would be where he is today without the backing of his family? Oh, please!

-- David Pagel

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