Thank you both very much, Professor Gordon and Mr. Kenway, for being with us this morning as we continue to work to find answers to our role in government, in society, when it comes to dealing with poverty in our countries.
You talked about altering society as a whole. One of the goals from my perspective is to start at zero in making sure that our children are prepared right at the very beginning, so that they have exposure to the things that stimulate their young minds and flow right into our education system. We keep trying to deal with what we're having to deal with today, which is the working poor or those who, for many reasons, are never going to get beyond the numbers required, as you said earlier.
So given the fact we would have to have two approaches, one from zero on and the other trying to deal with the people who we're all trying to deal with today, at least we should have a long-term vision as to where we need to be going and where we're going to start. If we had started in 1999, making sure we were all investing in the right things at that time, maybe we wouldn't be dealing with the numbers we have today.
But turning to the specific instruments the government is using to try to eradicate poverty now, we're talking about child care, increased minimum wages, and guaranteed income. All of those are ideas. What should the government have done differently and what should it do differently now?