[quote]Paul please explain how left wing US social policies have created this?[/quote] The underclass is characterised by inter-generational welfare dependency. The extension of welfare and its promotion to the existing black poor was a left wing social policy. An unforeseen side effect of the civil rights movement. Hutton's analysis of New Orleans is trite. The truth is slowly emerging and mostly seems to have the stench of political corruption and media hysteria upon it. This is all independent of any discussion of a flat tax, or tax reform in general, which is not intrinsically connected to welfare spending or tax reduction, except in the closed minds of left wing commentators. Paul