My 2c: As soon as someone becomes economically empowered:

- The incentive to commit crime reduces.
- They are able to educate their children (and possibly themselves) which in turn leads to better political decision making and allows an economy to grow.

By economically empowered I don't necessarily mean be given a job. Although thats nice, I don't think its possible on the scale we require. Instead everyone should be starting and running their own business. I'm not naive, I know that this has huge hurdles, such as finding markets to supply your services or products and coming up with ideas for products and services. However if we could make it happen, it would be a huge boost.