They promote middle class assets and values. Historically, America has been a broadly-based democracy in large part because we had strategies that offset the natural tendencies of wealth to become concentrated. In the early Republic, President Jefferson pursued land tenure policies that favored free-holding farmers rather than large landlords. These policies were reinforced in the Lincoln Administration, with the Homestead acts and legislation creating land grant colleges, as well as policies for universal and free public education. Today, fewer than three percent of Americans are farmers, but the same basic instruments of wealth-broadening apply the ownership of property and the development of human capital.
All politicians pay lip service to education.
But few politicians are serious about spending the money to lower class sizes and reward good teachers . It's easier to conjure up new tests and call that educational reform. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that one school system was out-performing all others in raising the test scores of poor and minority kids. Any serious version of wealth-broadening requires government action. Another strategy is so-called lifetime endowment accounts, as supplements to social security.