I'm not even thinking about poor vs. rich kids, or kids living in a ghetto vs. kids living in the suburbs. What about the man who gets laid off from work and has a family to support? When exactly is he supposed to pick up new skills, if nobody's hiring for his current ones in the area?

I got laid off last week, and I've been thanking my lucky stars that I'm a software engineer; I'm actively talking to three friends about going to work for their current employers, and I've got recruiters rattling off lists of companies looking to hire me - plus I get a severance, and my wife makes enough money that we have some bit of runway before I start having to sell clothes to feed our child.

If I were, I don't know, working at a coal mine that closed down? Or at a Toys'R'Us that got shuttered? Can't exactly hop back into a college curriculum for three years, kids don't eat lectures.