The gap between rich and poor is, indeed, the culprit. In absolute terms, a poor American is far better off than a poor Sierra Leonan. The American will earn more, eat better, live longer and see more children survive to be adults than her African counterpart. This datum will, however, in no way reduce the frustration or sense of uselessness that often befalls people trapped in American poverty. Science and technology create the machines that replace unskilled workers and the computers that replace unskilled clerks.
Social displacement follows hard on the heels of technological revolution.
Dickens prospered by writing about the wretched plight of people displaced in the Industrial Revolution, when land and agrarian skills were quickly pushed aside by capital and manufacturing skills as the basis of wealth. I bought my 13-year old nephew an iMac for Christmas. Dyson reports the same grim disparity between his home town of Princeton and its neighbor, Trenton. Steve Jobs answered that one particularly well, I m told, at a recent education conference. Asked if technology could help solve the problem of illiteracy, he thought for a moment, then said no, only teachers and parents can do that.