21 Quotes by William Julius Wilson

A lot of joblessness in the black community doesn’t seem to be reachable through fiscal and monetary policies. People have not been drawn into the labor market even during periods of economic recovery.

If you’re not working, over time you’re much more likely to develop attitudes and orientations and behavior patterns that are associated with casual or infrequent work. And then when you open up opportunities for people, you notice that these attitudes, orientations, habits and styles also change.

My research clearly reveals that if we want to put inner-city workers to work immediately, we just can’t rely on the private sector. They don’t want to touch them; they don’t want to hire them.