A 'Second-Chance' Society

Social programs "need to be refitted for a polarized labor market hard-wired to generate inequalities":

Why Canada should foster a ‘second-chance’ society, by Miles Corak: Canadians should be thumping their chests, after all many others are patting us on the back. When it comes to social mobility we are among the world leaders. Even U.S. President Obama acknowledged that a poor child is more likely to move up in life in Canada than in the United States.

This kind of mobility, the capacity for children to become all that they can be without regard to their starting point in life, is the bedrock of fairness. ...

But ... the ... foundations of fairness are shifting; luck will matter more, meritocracy will be perverted by growing inequality, and our public policies haven’t really changed to prepare for the new reality that is already pressing on young people. ...

Canadians need to build a “second chance” society so that the consequences of bad luck or bad choices don’t matter as much.

There is a whole host of ways our social programs built up in an era of stable and steady job growth need to be refitted for a polarized labor market hard-wired to generate inequalities. ...

He goes on to explain some of the ways this might be accomplished.