"Start with the following two facts. Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of 'I do this and you give me cash,' unless it's illegal. Second, every first generation successful person I know, started work early. And how many of you either did baby sitting or…

… You have a very poor neighborhood. You have kids who are required under law to go to school," he said. "They have no money. They have no habit of work. What if you paid them part-time in the afternoon to sit at the clerical office and greet people when they came in? What if you paid them to work as the assistant librarian? And I'd pay them as early as is reasonable and practical…”

“Core policies of protecting unionization and bureaucratization against children in the poorest neighborhoods, crippling them, by putting them in schools that fail, has done more to create income inequality in United States than any other single policy. It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children, first of all, in child laws which are truly stupid. Saying to people you shouldn't go to work before you're 14, 16. You're totally poor, you're in a school that's failing with a teacher that's failing.

I tried for years to have a very simple model. These schools should get rid of unionized janitors, have one master janitor, pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work; they'd have cash; they'd have pride in the schools. They'd begin the process of rising. Get any job that teaches you to show up on Monday. Get any job that teaches you to stay all day even if you’re in a fight with your girlfriend. The whole process of making work worthwhile is central. We have cut, you put your fingers to it, I take seriously that every American of every ethnic background of every neighborhood has the right to pursue happiness and that was endowed by the creator. That means you’re gonna see from me extraordinary radical proposals to fundamentally change the culture of poverty in America and to give people a chance to rise very rapidly…

… Go out and talk to people who are really successful in one generation. They all started their first job at 9 to 14 years of age. They are selling newspapers, going door to door, washing cars. They were all making money at a very young age. What do we say to poor kids in poor neighborhoods? Don't do it. Remember all the stuff about not getting a hamburger-flipping job? Worst possible advice to give the poor children.”