Follow the Money (Deeper)—A Clinical Diagnosis of Opportunity Hoarding

Abstract

In his argument for a rereading of opportunity hoarding and related policy prescriptions, David Imbroscio provides evidence for the misdiagnosis of elements of the problem vis-à-vis the entry and exit hypotheses consequentially resulting in limited effectiveness of common “prescribed treatments” for this behavior. His way forward focuses on a fundamental rebalancing of the instruments through which wealth is distributed to create more parity—a breaking up of the hoard. Thinking about his argument, I offer three additional premises that ask us to look more closely at how we treat the symptoms of opportunity hoarding, in a way that reflects the power of the mechanisms that sustain it.