Problems of scale

Last month's issue of The American Prospect featured an excellent special section on poverty in America and various policy initiatives aimed at combating it.

My column for Sunday deals with the role on non-profit organizations in this struggle, as well as the need for collaboration and consolidation rather than creation. With that in mind, this quote from David Jones, president of Community Service Society of New York, in an article on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg efforts to incentivize 'good' behavior was particularly insightful ...

Some of the ideas we're talking about are too small-bore for the third of New Yorkers who live in poverty. I have some concerns that there's an assumption here that the problem in dealing with chronic poverty is one of a lack of new ideas. In fact, New York, through its nonprofits and government, has been a laboratory of ideas for generations. The difficulty is bringing successful models to scale.