Thyme, progress doesn't have to come complete with drive-by shootings. Most social problems are related to wide (in my view obscene) disparities between rich and poor. If a guy works his socks off, or even just as hard as GW Bush (ha ha) and finishes up in poverty, while his neighbours are stinking rich, he'll do something about that if he's got any sense. We only get one shot at this life.

If you want the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer, which seems to be Dubbya's agenda, and seems to have been happening in Texas of late, build a wall round the rich or put the poor in jail.