Only a few miles of highway separate poverty-stricken South Central Los Angeles from wealthy Pacific Palisades. But the economic distance between them can be measured in light years. The average South Central resident earns 80% less than his Pacific Palisades counterpart. The unemployment rate in South Central is four times higher, and adults are eight times as likely not to have completed high school. In many respects, South Central has more in common with a third-world nation than with its neighbor.
A version of this article appeared in the July–August 1999 issue of Harvard Business Review.