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Showing posts from February, 2017

AFFORDABLE HOUSING & JOB TRAINING PROGRAMS: COUNTERINTUITIVE RESULTS

"Actions believed to alleviate the difficulties of a city can actually make matters worse."  Jay W. Forrester Jay Forrester penned his revolutionary article " The Counterintuitive Nature of Social Systems " (link to pdf full article) back in 1971. His article is as relevant today as the day it was published.   Since 40 year old academic articles aren't likely to reach the public, I think it's a good time to revisit this masterpiece. His article examines "four common programs for improving the depressed nature of central cities: ...creation of jobs by busing the unemployed to suburban jobs or through governmental jobs as employer of last resort; a training program to increase skills of the lowest-income group; financial aid to depressed cities from federal subsidies; and construction of low-cost housing.  All of these were shown to lie between neutral and highly detrimental . Forrester's investigation shows "how depressed area