). Polenberg observes that discriminatory hiring was unsuccessful in an integration of the workforce. Discrimination, as a means to an end, has not been successful as a unifying measure; discriminatory hiring, even that aimed at affirmative action, has been more divisive than it has been regenerative. Status quo has discrimination has been sustained at a time of challenge to unfair hiring discrimination. In a society dominated by class, race, and ethnicity, government policies will ultimately favor the dominant class when it comes to the sheer definition of such concepts as "discrimination."
Polenberg understands, and sympathizes with, the forces that have lead the government to act against economic inequality, but he distrusts governmental programs which are incapable of providing what they promise. The Economic Opportunity Act of the 1960s was "unabashedly class legislation, designating a special group in the population as eligible to receive the benefits of the law" (200). What characterizes the special group fit to receive these anti-poverty funds? In addition, who, or what bureaucratic agency, is to insure that the self-appointed spokespeople of the community action groups do not misappropriate funds for their own use? As Polenberg observes, "many [recogni
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