Editing Underclass (section)

===Auletta's three typologies of solutions===
[[Ken Auletta]] closes his book, ''The Underclass'' (1982), by highlighting three typologies of solutions: "the wholesale option", "the laissez-faire option", and "the retail option".<ref name="Auletta">{{cite book|last=Auletta|first=Ken|title=The Underclass|url=https://archive.org/details/underclass00aule|url-access=registration|year=1982|publisher=Random House|location=New York, NY|isbn=0-87951-929-0}}</ref>

The "wholesale option" includes both conservatives and liberals who are optimistic that government action can solve the underclass problem. According to Auletta, left-wing wholesale proponents call for increased public aid while right-wing wholesale proponents call for government to reduce taxes to increase jobs (inspired by [[Trickle-down economics|trickle-down economic theory]]) and charge the government to "get tough" on underclass crime and welfare dependency.<ref>{{cite book|last=Auletta|first=Ken|title=The Underclass|url=https://archive.org/details/underclass00aule|url-access=registration|year=1982|publisher=Random House|location=New York, NY|isbn=0-87951-929-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/underclass00aule/page/269 269]}}</ref>

The "[[laissez-faire]] option" is pessimistic and its proponents are extremely wary of proposed solutions to a problem they see as unsolvable. Proponents of this perspective call for a drastic withdrawal of public aid for the underclass and are concerned with "quarantining the patient" instead of hunting for what they believe is an imaginary cure.<ref>{{cite book|last=Auletta|first=Ken|title=The Underclass|url=https://archive.org/details/underclass00aule|url-access=registration|year=1982|publisher=Random House|location=New York, NY|isbn=0-87951-929-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/underclass00aule/page/291 291]}}</ref> In other words, the laissez-faire option assumes that the underclass is generally hopeless, and thus the only public effort given to them should be the bare minimum.

The "retail option" includes those in between optimism and pessimism, what Auletta calls "skeptics". The retail option advocates for targeted efforts, recognizing the limits of government intervention, but is also aware of the positive impact social policy can have on efforts to fix specific problems of the underclass. This middle ground perspective requests that aid be given to members of the underclass considered to be deserving of aid, but withheld from members considered to be undeserving. However, proponents of the retail option often disagree on which members of the underclass are considered deserving and which are not. This appears to be the approach embraced by Auletta as he closes his book with reflections on some of the people he interviews throughout preceding pages. He says, "I have no difficulty giving up on violent criminals like the Bolden brothers or street hustlers like Henry Rivera. But knowing how a government helping hand made it possible for Pearl Dawson and William Mason to succeed, would you be willing to write them off?"<ref>{{cite book|last=Auletta|first=Ken|title=The Underclass|url=https://archive.org/details/underclass00aule|url-access=registration|year=1982|publisher=Random House|location=New York, NY|isbn=0-87951-929-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/underclass00aule/page/319 319]}}</ref>