Why do America's wars against poverty turn out to be wars against the poor? Why does a nation so committed to fighting crime show such a bad record of combating it and so morbid a fascination with it? Why is American racism so deeply rooted? How has the national faith in individual initiative and free opportunity become a breeding ground for guilt about our own limited successes and prejudice against all who exhibit signs of failure? This book is about the manner in which many Americans interpret the existence of social and economic inequality. It is about their beliefs concerning such inequality and the consequences of these beliefs for the human serviceability of the American experience.