Hillbilly Elegy

these kids is what happens (or doesn’t
happen) at home. For example, we’d
recognize that Section 8 vouchers ought
to be administered in a way that doesn’t
segregate the poor into little enclaves.
As Brian Campbell, another Middletown
teacher, told me, “When you have a large
base of Section 8 parents and kids
supported by fewer middle-class
taxpayers, it’s an upside-down triangle.
There’re fewer emotional and financial
resources when the only people in a
neighborhood are low-income. You just
can’t lump them together, because then
you have a bigger pool of hopelessness.”
On the other hand, he said, “put the
lower-income kids with those who have