By now Americans have heard just about every idea on how to fix our dismal economy, and we're only half way through the presidential election campaign. Much of the talk has centered on seemingly technical issues: the best tax policy to create jobs, the right design for programs to retrain those out of work, the best ways to measure and improve our schools in their jobs of educating the next generation of worker.

A worker's economic fortunes, however, aren't solely a function of his training and intelligence, or of the opportunities around him. They are also the product of personal qualities, like industriousness, self-discipline, thrift and reliability. And these don't simply arise spontaneously in us; they are cultivated by our parents, our neighbors, our schools....