Most importantly, this approach to social policy does not effectively address the underlying causes of persistent high poverty and economic insecurity. For instance, increased spending on education may help increase schooling levels among poor children, but will not raise future income if broader economic policies fail to generate sufficient employment and there are no complementary policies that address idiosyncratic determinants of economic vulnerability, including ethnic, racial and gender discrimination, which keep wage returns to some of the poor low. Nor will social investments raise incomes if the poor cannot accumulate physical and financial capital, or if recurrent economic downturns force periodic de-cumulating of their limited assets.