This sort of thing is so enraging. What is it that makes so many Americans too lazy or indifferent to get off the couch and get involved in improving the country for more of our friends and neighbors. " I know I'm apathetic, but I don't give a damn" isn't funny anymore. It's literally deadly.
6
This is a nation that passionately supports their precious AK15s— not their own children who are slaughtered in their classrooms, churches, concerts, movies, the mall.
This is a nation that defunds CHIP, health care for children. Defunds food stamps, Medicaid, anything that might help children.
10
We ought to take a long hard look at the content of Bipartisan outcry against Trump’s immigration policy. They may legitimately have grievances with the visible dehumanization of Central American families but Self-identified progressive politicians have developed the infrastructure neccesary for Trump to even execute these policies.
NYC Mayor DeBlasio is “flabbergasted” and “outraged” but oversees an Administration of Children Services almost exclusively removing Black + Hispanic children to the tune of 200+/month. Following the resignation of ACS Commissioner Gladys Carrion, he recruits David Hansell from global auditing company KPMG who excitedly declares a return to a “metric based management” system and closer collaboration with NYPD in the name of “preventing child abuse”. We are not a nation lacking in compassion, we are a nation that surveills and incarcerates our children in the name of saving them.
Alston’s report raises serious concerns “Automated risk assessment tools, take “data about the accused, feed it into a computerized algorithm, and generate a prediction of the statistical probability the person will commit some future misconduct”
predictive analytics and “selective incapacitation” of historically marginalized peoples has largely avoided ethical accountability through coded language like “at-risk” that doesn’t dog whistle white hooded Klan but is well understood by the kind of UWS liberals who recently protested the integration of local public schools
44
Who cares about living breathing humans when there are an unknown number of unborn objects to worry about? Much easier to bury our collective heads in the sand and bray on about which we know nothing.
3
America was born enslaving black African American kids in America.
America was bred treating black African American kids separate and unequal.
America was founded denying the humanity of brown aborignal native kids in America.
America lives denying that the lives of black and brown kids matter.
White kids lives matter. MAGA!
6
"Love the stranger as yourself." That's the crux of the issue. Taxes, schools, religion, and all the rest of what the D's and R's argue about are just the tools. Until we believe in the basics nothing else will go right.
6
Overuse of foster care? Tell that to the 1 in 5 girls who are molested, of which 30% are molested by someone in their own home. That’s 6% of ALL GIRLS.
For some of us foster care would have been a major upgrade.
5
In the 1970s and 1980s I worked as a social worker for the Department of Social Services in SC. Mostly I worked to help children get needed medical care, including dental care, but occasionally I was called upon to work on child protective services cases.
I recall one boy who went to school only to eat breakfast and lunch. His alcoholic mother didn't have a lot of food at home. He died in a high speed auto chase at age 16 after he committed a robbery. This boy was likely mentally ill.
A second boy also died in a high speed chase at about the same age. He had stolen a carton of cigarettes.
Both boys were clearly neglected, but no case I ever referred for neglect or abuse was "substantiated," (a finding of actual neglect or abuse).
These were only two of the hundreds I tried to help, sometimes successfully. But this is South Carolina, which has the highest level of domestic abuse in the country and a high level of neglect and abuse of children as well.
Poor children often go to the worst schools, get too little to eat and have little opportunity to get enough education to provide a better life for themselves and their families. Black children fare the worst, in general.
Meanwhile, corrupt politicians such as the Quinns line their pockets and try to find ways to provide even less for children. Kids are disposable here.
9
We need a new, updated FDR. Race or gender negotiable. We are at WAR, and the battles are between the Rich and their GOP lackeys, and ALL the rest of us. The time for appeasement is over, its past time to fight. While we still can. VOTE, like the lives of your children and grandchildren are hanging in the balance. News Flash: They ARE.
5
What infuriate's me most about Kristof's comment "kids don't vote" is that people like the present writer have used these very words for YEARS. There are countless heartless American politicians who wax eloquently about family values and the gift of children, blah, blah, blah - but never do anything (legislatively) but insure the security of their special interests.
3
I was surprised by your word choice distinguishing between immigrant kids and “our own”. I think that terminology really furthers the us and them mentality. Why not just say that we should be concerned for all children in need do our best to meet the needs of all vulnerable children, And point out with those needs are?
5
Hooray. Finally, this new UN report makes it to the Times op ed page. Thanks Kristof.
Why has media coverage of this been inadequate? The NYT had only short AP summaries of it.
Phillip Alston, world poverty expert was interviewed on Democracy Now recently---see transcript---but cable news TV ignored this.
The link Alston makes between the migrant kids and indifference to US low income kids should be a big story on CNN, Msnbc. Now Americans are showing compassion for the migrant kids taken from parents.
CNN did have an article on its website.
The Washington Post had an excellent article with plenty of reader comments--- “An explosive U.N. report shows America's safety” Jeff Stein June 6.
Says, “Americans “live shorter and sicker lives compared to those living in all other rich democracies…..The persistence of extreme poverty is a political choice made by those in power,” Alston writes. “With political will, it could readily be eliminated.”
Political will? Not in America’s political culture dominated by wealthy corporate megadonors subsidizing our election campaigns, calling the shots in their favor.
6
Haley ruined her reputation during her service to Trump. Her own state has a high poverty level, something she chose to ignore.
5
Mr. Kristof, we share your moral revulsion that child poverty would exist in America. But you speak as if there was some magic program that the government could fund that would eradicate child poverty. That program does not exist.
Child poverty in the US is exceedingly complex, and even us NY Times readers should admit, sometimes caused by the government. The conservatives are not crazy when they point out how family disintegration and child poverty are two sides of the same coin.
So as you plug early education, which is fine, please keep in mind that America is not miserly. Trillions have gone to poverty programs in the US since the Great Society program, and yet child poverty is worse. The problem is not just money. The breakdown of the family must also be addressed.
8
The one thing no gov't can take responsibility for, or intervene in, is when and by whom these children are conceived.
This activity is exponential as to how much it can overwhelm any given state agencies there to offer support.
I remember a story in NYTimes several years ago, about a homeless adolescent girl. She was the middle child of SEVEN children.
Her parents both were people who'd only ever worked minimum wage jobs. Which typically offer no benefits, and require many hours of work for the minimal of self support.
Housing would be tight, even for a couple with ONE child. And in the event of a medical or financial emergency, it's likely no relatives or well meaning friends could take in a family that large so they aren't vulnerable to homelessness.
These are the limits of what the gov't could ever do, as long as individuals consider it their god given right (and no country like this restrains them or could), from having as many children as they want.
Regardless the poverty or risks to that child that poverty and other factors clearly pose.
8
The GOP is pro-birth at best but mostly anti-life.
6
Kids don't vote, Mr. Kristof? Kids and poor parents and even middle class parents can't donate big bucks to our election campaigns. They can't compete to get representation in the 'world's greatest democracy'. US high poverty rates are a symptom of campaign finance.
Isn't it past time for Kristof for once to include this huge causative factor as he continually exposes and laments America's severe problems?
Why do he and other columnists ignore this? Are they afraid of being accused by the Fox News crowd of being too left wing/progressive/ liberal/socialist---and other such dirty words, if they oppose our politicians being in captivity to big money donors, and trace the destructive ripple effects?
An international reporter like Kristof knows other democracies limit private donations, using more public funding for elections. Our flood of campaign ads are banned abroad, so their political discussion won't be OVERBALANCED by dominance of rich corporate donors.
Here our corporate lobbyists/donors set norms--- the high fees they pay for our biggest campaign expense--- campaign ads--also enrich the media. Is that why media avoids the topic? And why our political norm is set against Medicare for All that dozens of nations have for generations?
Good that Kristof's exposes poverty and injustice for millions, but it's time for him and others to make vivid contrasts on how big money determines the 'political will' in America, no matter what the Bill of Rights may say.
4
It seems from afar that "making America great" is a "now" construct, one that only appeals to those who can vote today, and there are increasingly less of them thanks to the courts. What would happen if the narrative was changed from me and now to what is my legacy. Nicholas' comment on compassion is understated and key. Children brought up without compassion will not offer it; so please America start to role model what you want America to be like for your kids.
3
I do not think that Kristof is approaching the problem nor solutions in depth.
Early childhood enrichment , for example, has been shown to not compensate in any way for disruptive family lives, the absence of fathers in the home, and mothers too emotionally immature to care properly to the needs of children- across the board, not just in the poorer segments.
I am also tired of blaming the current President; I recall thinking on multiple occasions that his predecessor, Mr Smooth, did absolutely NOTHING to address and improve the American societal tragedy.
8
I think the biggest impediment to compassionate treatment of children is that too many people in the U.S. don't think of the nation's young as "our" children, because the under-18 population is not of the same racial and ethnic breakdown as older people. Additionally, children who need help may not live nearby. For many, they're not "our" kids and thus not "our" problem. As Paul Krugman would say, it's "those people" and THEIR problem.
An attitude that is not only mean and unworthy, but also dysfunctional. We will always need new generations of workers and taxpayers, whether they look like a 1950s population or not.
4
Right! 10's of millions of our citizen children whose parents and grandparents fought in our wars, paid taxes all their lives, actually built most of our nation's infrastructure suffer because of our elite rigging flooding of our nation with 10's of millions of immigrants. Our citizen kids have to sit in over crowded public school classrooms dumbed down 2 grade levels because they are half full of kids of no English, 3rd grade equivalency illegal/legal immigrants, delay care and pay outrageous medical bills because of all the no pay immigrants "sharing" or health care system and also "share" with immigrants and so often get no or reduced access to all other government services as well.
10
Perhaps a solution may be for the US government to stop creating these awful conditions that people are forced to flee from.
2
American's kids are not worthy or deserving. It's ALL about the illegals, DACA, immigrants, refugees.
7
Why did it take more than a week for ANYONE in the NYT to make this argument? Why is the NYT so willing to carry water for Trumpism but not stand up for Americans who are being tangibly harmed by this administration?
5
Americans care about God, children, guns and money—but never in that order
To prolong and promote this American anti-child policy (part of genocide by malign neglect) is the main reason why the GOP enacted its "tax cut" which creates a $1.3 trillion deficit. The Repubs will then say, "We can't afford it!" to shred the social safety net.
It makes the Final Solution (which killed my family remaining in Europe in 1939) look quaint and expensive.
Ambassador Haley is a GOP apparatchik liar fronting for an administration of liars.
4
So why then advocate for a single dollar to be spent on illegal immigrant children when our own are going without?
11
This is the richest nation the world has ever known. Maybe US should stop meddling in these nations upsetting farmlands and creating dangerous situations that poor desperate families need to flee from.
1
Inequality is such a neutral word, e.g., it's like describing the temperature difference between heaven and hell as noticeable.
68 people on earth have more money than 3.5 billion others.
It's up to us to change things. Inequality kills.
5
Americans should be concerned about American citizens? Seriously? I am completely flabbergasted at such a heretical notion coming from this publication.
10
Bless you for your article on child poverty in the worlds richest country.
I .was a psychotherapist for 50 years and when they closed down our mental hospital units because we wouldn't drug people to get them out faster, I gave up on psychiatry and went into private practice in Ontario, where psychotherapy was covered by OHIP.
I discovered that even severely psychotic, motivated people could become well with insight oriented , humane, therapy..
I believe having this available would not only prevent great suffering,
3
Two words: mass incarceration.
The most vile of all the socialist jobs programs that the United States currently maintains, and the continuing source of slave labor that no one [privileged and/or white] wants to talk about. Once we abolish our 'penitentiary' system, then we may actually be on firm enough ethical ground to have a conversation about family neglect/dysfunction.
5
We encourage poor people to have too many children. It is too easy to drop out of school have children and get an apartment along with a welfare check and food stamps. Most of the children born today are on welfare. Maybe we should make it more difficult to drop out of school. Start in to make that welfare check contingent upon either getting training or getting a job. Maybe we should stop increasing welfare payments when more children are born.
11
I hope you are also endorsing childcare supports.
4
Maybe we should make birth control freely and readily available. Oh but the Republicans don’t like birth control.
8
The Trump/Pence Administration says the USA doesn't have a poverty problem and that only 250,000 Americans live in extreme poverty.
They wouldn't lie to us, would they? Of course they would.
If you want to care about children, you first have to care about families and, particularly, care about women. That's not likely with the Trump/Pence/McConnell/Ryan "Misogyny" Team in charge of our government... or any Republican-controlled state. It's not that dads don't matter, it's just still very evident today that children's welfare is directly linked to the welfare of "mothers"... regardless of family structure and composition.
Oddly, just look at where the highest levels of poverty tend to be concentrated: the Deep South states - All Republican controlled. When you have a political Party, that's hellbent allergic to financing public welfare programs (using the broad definition of welfare here, far beyond just TANF), you're going to find lousy outcomes for children... and their moms and dads.
5
This is a direct quote - I just googled percent of US births on Medicaid:
“CNSNews.com) - In 24 of the nation’s 50 states at least half of the babies born during the latest year on record had their births paid for by Medicaid, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
New Mexico led all states with 72 percent of the babies born there in 2015 having their births covered by Medicaid.”
Shocking figures - that’s why so many kids live in poverty.
18
That's not too surprising, considering that half of all jobs don't come with any medical insurance. We need single payer Medicare for all.
5
We are importing poor and welfare dependent people, crashing the social safety net for indigent citizens.
4
Mr. Kristof: Tax cuts are more important than people of any age. You must have missed the memo from Trump, Ryan, McConnell, and all other members of the GOP.
2
Thanks, I'm getting tired of everyone getting ahead of our own children.
8
We can afford to care about all children. My grandchildren are frightened by what they see and hear about toddlers and babies torn from their mothers arms. Frightened.
1
Millions of American children in poverty are already considered reliable future voters or non-entity chattel by the DNC—of course they need to find a new group to do the Pied Piper bit with.
3
Why is that? Because Republicans have programs to help the poor? Republicans only care about the rich.
1
What’s a good US org fighting child poverty to donate to?
Thank you Mr. Kristof for bringing these issues to light.
It is time for all good Americans to vote like our lives depend on it, because it does. Our political system is morally bankrupt and totally corrupted.
1
Federal and state governments constantly fail our kids, as do other institutions. Like churches, that obstruct sex education and family planning efforts. Like communities that normalize high teen birth rates, or encourage large families to the detriment of ALL our kids' environmental futures. And finally, the individuals who decide (or more commonly - don't decide), but have kids they are unable to care fore, whether that's psychologically or materially. To Kristof's point - these failures seem to be far less important in the current political/cultural climate, especially if the kids are poor.
5
While 1984 got the lion's share of comparisons following the Russian election of Homer Simpson now that we in the deeper end of the pool I suggest attention be paid Sinclair Lewis's 'It Can't Happen Here'. With the doing away with the SC , intimidation of Newspaper editors and the camps for political enemies both real and imagined. Written in 1935 as satire today it it is prophetic.
1
This article misses a few points. And sadly, continues the us vs. them attack. While the number of poor, as classified by current statistics, is high in the US there are some things to consider when statistics are tossed around. The 'research' and subsequent conclusions ignore the fact that the money, subsidies, and healthcare provided to the poor are not included. If you include the aid they receive, and rightly receive (except for fraud, which does exist), the number of poor in the US hasn't changed is is quite low. Homelessness is much more complex than Kristof implies - most are not homeless because they are poor. Most are homeless because of mental illness or drugs. And it was the ACLU in the 80s that demanded we release the mentally ill from 'institutions' because of their civil rights. That was the first surge in homelessness, and has only worsened over time. Really tired of identity politics, and the far left creating a divide between people. They are as bad as the far right. It's about fixing root cause, NOT MORE FREEBIES.
6
Start by education and access to free family planning including early abortion to reduce poverty.
Then start a plan to cut one missile + add some social programs
cut another missile + build public transport
add a highest earners' tax bracket + lower public college tuition
If the public sees a correlation between cuts, taxes and spending - they may actually go + vote for it.
5
Our nation was founded on the idea that all people are created equal, except for female people, and dark-skinned people. This founding premise is still playing out today, it's that simple. Some people matter more than other people to the powers that be, and it's only going to get worse until people who know better show up en masse at the polls.
1
Mr Kristoff rightly points out that we have a serious problem taking care of childten in this country. For years I have been reading statistics about how children have been becoming poorer and sicker. There is a maddening hypocrisy in our fair country. Pro-life protesters gather, meet, and try any way they can to stop pregnant women from getting an abortion because they believe in the sanctity of life. Yet when it comes to a living, breathing child, where are the pro-life protesters? Where are they when children's drinking water is poisoned? Or when they are left unsupervised by neglectful parents and the child is starving? Or when both parent and child are homeless?
The disparity between rich and poor is growing. This unhappy fact will only lead to more social unrest. The first to be hurt will be children, the disabled, and the extreme elderly. If our social programs keep on being threatened, people will be lost. Some callous taxpayers say it's not their problem. Guess what, unless you can foretell the future, then you have no idea if someday you may need that safety net.
6
Poverty, whole relative, cannot said to be the same in the US as anywhere else when here, the definition of “poor” is a last generation iPhone, only 30 channels of cable, no free internet, payments, housing, medical care and discounts that equate to a $30,000/yr lifestyle and free college.
4
“A parent makes bad choices, her children suffer. Why is this my problem?” ———-
Here’s why:—-
We are individuals, but not simply individuals. What makes human beings so effective in the world is our ability to co-operate. Alone, against a water buffalo, I am completely powerless. With the help of a team, I can have water buffalo for dinner all winter. But if the team is too weak and sick to function, there goes my dinner. This is where Ayn Rand gets it wrong. Single individuals do not achieve anything worth mentioning except on the backs of many who went before. And with the help of many others. Their suffering therefore literally becomes my suffering. America cannot be great again if 1/5 of its children live in abject poverty. It will destroy us all.
8
"Alston told me that “there’s a very direct link” between the mistreatment of immigrant children at the border and the indifference toward low-income children all across the country. The core reason, he suggested, is a lack of compassion."
The other day, the Irish Times ran an essay by a young Irish woman who was leaving USA to return to Ireland (which recently affirmed women's rights...soon to be diminished in USA). The reason? This country lacks compassion. Our cult of self-reliance has reduced a virtue to a rationalization for greed.
1
Back during the 2016 election campaign, Trump accused Hillary Clinton of bigotry toward African Americans. Many Democrats and Independents, who felt identified with Clinton by supporting her, reacted strongly against Trump because in essence, Trump was accusing them of being racists simply because they were supporting her.
So Edsall’s analysis is correct - people do not like to be accused of being racist simply by supporting a candidate who is accused of racism.
It is beside the point that Clinton is not really rascist - the bottom line is that she was accused of being so.
So the wonderful research in this article applies to both sides, then. And — Trump supporters who seem to be baffled by the animosity toward Trump and keep telling those of us who are resisting him with all our might, to “just let him govern”, may begin to understand why we despise him so much.
1
Nicholas Kristof states that ”a child is 57 percent more likely to die by the age of 19 in the U.S. than in our peer countries, according to a study published this year in Health Affairs.” But when you follow the link to the story, you discover “peer countries” is a euphemism for countries that lack the United States’ racial and ethnic diversity.
The United States, Japan and Australia are the only non-European countries on the study’s list of 20 “comparator” nations. None of these nations other than the United States have large black or Latino populations.
The study shows that homicides account for the United States’ poor ranking. The FBI Uniform Crime Report (Data Table 21L Arrest by Race and Ethnicity) shows that blacks, who make up about 13.3% of the U.S. population, make up 52.6 percent of those arrested for murder in the United States while Latinos made up 20 percent of those arrested for murder. Together, black and Latinos commit about 72.6 percent of murders although they make up only 31.5 percent of the population.
The United States should not be compared to countries like Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway Switzerland or Japan. It should be compared to other countries that are as racially and ethnically diverse as America.
6
Canada is racially and ethnically diverse. Or are we not a "peer" with our "weak and dishonest" Prime Minister (as he was described by the current Occupant of the White House)? Toronto is half immigrant.Vancouver not far behind.
. I know Canada is not on the radar of most Americans, but this is ridiculous.....Perhaps people could stop making excuses for the USA for its heartlessness, mass incarcerations for minor violations, not to mention the constant and continual wars in far off countries..seldom mentioned but expensive. The money could be used to eliminate child poverty.Seriously.
In regards to the well being of kids.. teach school children the importance of not making babies until you can support them and marriage. Quaint but effective.
10
Maybe get rid of enforced pregnancy? If the anti choice people really cared about stopping abortion they would ask provision of free contraceptives for all.Also, we know they care about the lives of the fetus...How about the lives of the children already born? Birth control is not quaint but it can be effective.
2
Make birth control and snort freely and readily available. That would actually work. Preaching doesn’t.
2
It's time for another American Revolution, one that takes back the country for all citizens and prioritizes children with the honor, care and respect that they deserve.
As I read Mr. Kristof's article, the full extent to which we mistreat and neglect American children is clear, as is the fact that America has truly lost its way. Money and greed are at the root, an out-of-control disease where grown-ups rationalize tax cuts for corporations at the expense of children.
Oh, yes that's right "it is all the governments fault."
No mention of parental responsibility for anything.
No mention of how many single mothers having not just one child but many from many different "baby daddies"
Yes we should be doing much more for our children here in the US, and if you are a republican the answer does not start with ending funding for Planned Parenthood. The answer must start with the personal responsibility of the parents.
7
Don’t blame seniors, they paid plenty into Medicare and government programs for children, work with religious organizations etc.
6
Perhaps teen-aged girls should think twice about having multiple children with multiple partners. Perhaps they should think about the consequences associated with single mom's and absentee fathers. This is how the vicious cycle continues Patrick Moynihan was absolutely right all those years ago.
12
Teen pregnancies are trending down, down.
The problem is our importation of poor people from our southern border who do not practice birth control of any type but produce more "citizen children" that is exploding the US population.
Gov. Jerry Brown rightfully rants about climate change from one side of his mouth but while whistling with a beckon for illegal immigration from the other side of his mouth.
3
Before I even read this ( and I will). America is hurting children everyday as we constantly defund and weaken public education. No other action, or lack of it hurts more kids nationally.
1
What so many of the elite neglect to realize when they decide to underfund education, healthcare and child welfare programs is that they are also shortchanging their own children. Who is going to educate their future workforce? Who is going to buy the products that their future corporations will make?
Much like the Powerball winner cashing in their $1 billion ticket for $200 million after taxes, many among America's ruling class seem to be cashing in all of their political capital for a quick dime, while leaving a mess for their children and the rest of us to clean up.
1
Companies have found that with increased margins, they can do just as well with fewer buyers and less effort than they did trying to reach the greatest market. In addition, why are we allowing a free K-12 (to the student) public education to anyone who wants one when many service job bs can be effectively performed with a sixth grade education. With states like NY spending an average of more than $25,000 per student, such largesse represents billions wasted nationally at Target alone.
Our corporate capitalist economy also undermines family. The community and family ties that provide stability for children are broken each time we “move for a job”. On the most basic level - you can’t babysit grandchildren via email or Skype.
2
It would be an excellent idea for the Democratic Party to take on child poverty. The answers aren’t easy, the problems run deep, but the resolution is important to us all. It’s a strategy that every American can get behind, even those who think people on benefits should work. (There is some truth to this, as many people do prefer to do work of some type.) If the Democrats embraced this issue, and showed how to pay for it by diverting existing funds (instead of another income redistribution scheme), it’d be so powerful.
Instead, I fear the focus will be illegal immigrants, identity politics, and the very powerful “we stink but at least we aren’t Trump” platform. It saddens me that we don’t see people marching in the streets for American children.
11
Where have you been? The Dems are still playing identity politics and putting rights of illegals over those of American citizens. That game plan didn't work out well for Mrs. Clinton. They won't work this time either.
6
Ami - you are so right on! Prevention is key, so that from PRE- pregnancy there is a safety net being woven. As Kristof aptly stated, "Early childhood programs in particular make a huge difference: parent coaching..." does transform the lives of infants and toddlers, those in the most critical years of brain development. Those programs must be supported by public funds if the public wants to foster wellness for all which means security for those at risk, because poverty exists in our own back yards, so to speak. Here's one effective and successful family guidance program that has been offering such good works for 40 years: www.rie.org
2
Nicholas, great op ed and once again dealing with subjects no other pundits are. Its really a no-brainer to give simply provide Medicaid to anyone under the age of 26 (to conform to ACA),22 (to conform with college graduation)or 18 to conform with legal adulthood (take your pick) these kids cant get jobs and provide health care for themselves. Society must provide that safety net to ALL kids. Most would not use it, and kids are not expensive to cover anyway.
I simply cannot understand why some compassionate conservative who wants to halt to progress toward Medicare for all adults doesnt pose this as a gambit and get the health care anchor off their necks. No big impact on the budget they achieve high moral ground and pro family ground securely. As for the equally feckless dems chasing the quixotic "Medicare for all" without fighting out how to pay for it or deal with the moral hazards of expanding the safety net further to a society with large and growing levels of drug abuse, indolence and apathy, if they were less focused on scoring political points, firing up their base, and raising Campaign funds, they should put this on the table. If republicans opposed they would be exposed as manifestly heartless,
4
Just a thought here, and maybe an unpopular one, but here goes...
I wonder if multigenerational poverty continues because our social welfare systems give the wrong incentives? Maybe instead of being most generous to single mothers with small children, we should give the largest cash benefits to people who choose to remain childless? Our current system rewards childbearing out-of-wedlock, since a poor woman's access to Medicaid, food stamps, Section 8 and other benefits often depends on having young children (this does vary somewhat from state to state). Maybe if we gave young poor women these supports, community college or trade school tuition, and perhaps a cash stipend as long as they remained childless, we could break the cycle of poverty and dependence. We have got to give people who are emotionally and financially unprepared to parent an alternative path that discourages early parenthood and opens up better possibilities. We also need to create incentives for males to take responsibility for their offspring.
17
but then where will the oligarchs get the cannon fodder needed to protect their interests?
Free long term birth control would be cheaper and probably more effective
8
Nicholas, thank you for calling my attention to the 2017 report by the U.N.'s Philip Alston who went to places where Americans are now living in poverty. Alston's personal journeys bring to mind a high-profile visit fifty years before to Cleveland, Mississippi. At the request of civil rights lawyer Marian Wright, Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Joseph Clark went to the Delta in April 1967 to study poverty. Kennedy came away convinced. "The only way there's going to be change," he said, "is if it's more uncomfortable for Congress not to act than it is for them to act...You've got to get a whole lot of poor people who just come to Washington and stay here . . . until Congress gets really embarrassed and they have to act."
It's hard to say if the current Congress could become uncomfortable about anything, aside from having a disgruntled donor base, but we won't know until we try. I say, for the duration, that we concerned citizens make it our mission to afflict the comfortable. We need a Robert Kennedy, a Joseph Clark, or a Martin Luther King, Jr., but it may be that all we have is ourselves. There is lots we can do on our own. Let your congressperson and your senators know how you feel about issues. Attend rallies. There's one this weekend at my state Capitol to pressure this administration to reunite families separated at the border.
Perhaps most important of all, vote.
5
I'll say it again. If the United States of America didn't spend more than half of its annual budget on WEAPONS OF WAR there would be enough money to take care of our people. It's as simple as that.
10
Germany is known for high-tech manufacturing.
They have faced the same globalization we have.
They don't have the poverty we have.
They have universal healthcare.
They provide better working class education with trades and high-tech training.
After 35 years of trickle-down Reaganomics, we got an opioid crisis.
17
Please compare the size and population numbers f Germany to the US. And also this country does not encourage trade schools. Instead it's college for all even though some aren't qualified.
4
Germany protects its working class citizens; the US despises them;
Germany has a lower birthrate;
Because of NATO, Germany spends less for defense;
Germans value education - not all Americans do;
Germans have a better public education system;
Germany is not a diverse society. There is only one dominant culture - German.
6
@Margo Channing
You can google the population of Germany.
And you are mistaken, Germany definitely has a track for trade schools and not everyone is on track for university.
You can google that, too.
SpaceForce, trillion dollar wars, for-profit prison and tax cuts for ultra-wealthy so much more exciting to our elected officials than planning for a healthy generation of children; one that would pay dividends in labor productivity, an educated electorate, less social problems.
The media should be asking every politician to define a healthy society and policy towards our children. Would love to hear their thoughts - why they think other countries do so much better for their children. How can the US be a leader in anything when our children are low priority?
10
Hmm... 1970? Isn't that about when the "War On Poverty" was launched? Medicare, Medicaid, WIC, et al? Wasn't that also right about when Nixon delinked the dollar from gold, allowing the Fed to increase the money supply to infinity without real assets to back it?
Hmm.
4
The War on Poverty began in 1964. It basically ended after 1968 and was in death throes by 1970.
In America we view children as property. Poor children aren't protected by the veneer of money but middle class families on up can abuse their children too and do much worse than poorer families. I lived in a middle class neighborhood in a village with good schools. My parents were abusive, verbally and physically. I was told, over and over again that I was a burden, stupid, unlovable, etc. I didn't know until I was in my 30s that graduating 7th in my high school class was something to be proud of. Because my parents made it clear that they didn't want to spend a ton of money on me for college I went to a state college and never considered grad school.
No one stepped in to force my parents to stop abusing me. No one stopped the bullying at school either. By the time I was in my 20s it was all I could do to survive. Part of the problem in my family was that my grandparents didn't care for my parents. How could they possibly care for me when they weren't cared for? So the cycle continued.
Now, at the age of almost 60, I haven't had a single intimate relationship. When you're beaten verbally and physically, and your main experience in life is that of being despised and hurt you don't want to be noticed or in love. You want to survive. I've done that but the cost has been very high. Had there been more relief and help for our family when we needed it I could have had a better life. The truth is that our country does not value children. It values money.
25
#MeToo
Thank you for your honesty and courage in telling your story so the readers can understand that middle-class kids don't all have it as easy as it looks from the outside. I made it to a prestigious graduate school over the objections and protestations of my abusive mother. I did very well and have been ever since. I'm more independent from the way I grew up, and much more compassionate. Your comment really resonated with me. Thank you.
8
Hen3ry,
You speak for me as well; my story is very similar to yours. I chose to remain childless in part because I was aware that I have great difficulties with bonding and intimacy, and have no idea how to parent in a non-abusive manner. When a child grows up with criticism, she learns to condemn. When she grows up with violence, she learns cruelty. My advanced education helped me develop intellectually, but not emotionally. I also realized that the addiction that runs in both sides of my family has a genetic component, so no kids for me. There are some (heroic, in my mind) individuals who manage to overcome trauma and become good parents because they're determined to do things differently. Unfortunately, they are the exception, not the rule. Most who grow up unloved will have difficulty loving themselves.
4
Frederick Douglass said it simply, "It is easier to build strong children than repair broken men."
24
Mr. Kristof brings up a good point when he suggests that the United Nations' Ambassador does not recognize poverty in the United States as a problem, that she finds that it is, "...patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America." Are we not part of this organization? Do we not merit examination into the problem as well as the rest of the world? Statistics say we do. Obviously, our government is not doing what it could to take care of the problem. We are in distress not only in what has been created at the border, but internally over years of neglect, by who knows why and by whom, and who cares now, It needs to be fixed.
4
The reason for the lack of protection for children cannot be summed up by saying that Seniors vote but children don't
After all, many Seniors voted for Republicans, whose opposed from the start, and keep presenting budgets that undermine, Social Security and Medicare.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/unconscionable-proposed-changes-...?
But Republicans never mention, indeed they outright lie about, their plans to destroy Medicare in their campaign ads. Similarly, Republicans claim to protect children (although just unborn children) in their campaign ads.
So, the underlying problem is that most voters decide based upon the propaganda of campaign ads, rather than following how their "representatives" vote.
This is exacerbated by political reporters that focus on polls, gaffes and branding of the sports contest of a campaign, rather than report about the actual policies being decided by the election.
6
Finally! This article hits the nail on its head but... there are places in the USA where poverty is just as bad as undeveloped countries and the press has just ignored it for over 45 years. Please let me take you for a ride. I will take to to the east New York section of Brooklyn. Home of the notorious 75th precinct and homicide capital of New York. I will take you to schools that are utterly disgusting and uninhabitable where our kids go to school. I will show you schools where science labs are from 1960 and unusable. I will show you text books where Nixon is still president. I can show you good teachers and how they flee this horrors we call schools. I will then take you to lunch so you can dine on the food also. All this plus more just 9 miles from Manhattan in a land that time and politicians forgot. Nobody ever worried about kids. Rev. Al never visited nor has any politician. 4 to 5 generations of minority kids that are functioning illiterates. Where are all the congressman and senators. Where is the media? Where are the people crying for our children. Even the great New York Times is complicit in all this as it’s metro section has deteriorated to nothing. For 45 yrs we have begged for help for our kids to no avail. Shame on all of you!
34
According to the ACLU, 60 000 children are imprisoned in the United States every day. Most of those will be mentally scarred for life. It is barbaric and the state-sanctioned brutal abuse of children.
9
Mr. Kristof's views on this subject are unwelcome in Trumpistan. Here, now, the kids he refers to as "our own" are not, in fact, "ours" but someone else's, mainly those who, like kids themselves, "don't vote". The bottom line must be that Americans don't care about other people's kids. Why don't we just admit it instead of telling the world how good we are while muttering privately about, e.g., sterilization?
6
And this is the country which proclaims itself as an exemple to the world, the lighthouse which lights up the world.
PS Memo to President Trump: If you want to stop legal and illegal immigration translates this paper by Nicholas Kristof in Spanish and distribute it to the people who show up at the border. Any responsible parent will turned away or asked to be send to Canada.
7
It should be noted that here in Canada, we have a problem with child poverty as well. According to Statistics Canada, 17% of Canadian children, 1.2 million children are living in poverty. UNICEF has said that Canada ranks poorly among wealthy nations for children’s wellbeing.
Still, in Canada, every child and every parent is covered by our Medicare system and our government has at least recognized that child poverty is a shameful problem for our country and has committed itself to alleviating the effects of poverty. In the US, the child poverty rate declined from 19.7% to 18.0% in 2016, which represented over 40 million children, but I expect that number will soar in Trump’s America.
2
It might be nice to imagine that America was ever kind to children, but it wasn't. Slave children were ripped from their mothers' arms. Native American children were taken away and sent to boarding schools. White children from poor families were went out to work in strangers' homes. Latino/a children worked the fields alongside their parents. Sure, in post-WWII America, with plenty of jobs, many white kids were treated fairly well, but even then teachers could not report suspected abuse. We have always thought we were better than we actually were.
14
Nothing new here. Anyone who reads on a daily basis, knows that this has been a chronic problem in this country for untold years. All the right cares about is a fetus, not the live child.
14
The lower classes are being systematically decimated through job loss from outsourcing and automation and through relentless tax cuts for the rich and subsequent national debt accumulation which impacts safety net programs. There is a national hopelessness that breeds depression and self-medication with drug and alcohol abuse - all of which effects children negatively. Then we punish the adults but also punish the innocent kids.
6
If your income, present or future potentially will not support a family, don’t have one. All of these kids who commenters are handwringing over cannot have been born to families that once had high hopes incomes that were lost in the recession.
4
It is hard not to be depressed of late. Childhood poverty, and it's consequences, is not a new concept. It's a hidden truth - one that has lingered, festered and only made worse by a bullying administration that is gathering up the riches to share amongst a small handful of like-minded thieves and crooks. And where is our outrage? Sitting at home, watching TV, playing video games, or throwing up their hands and saying my vote doesn't count, so I'll stay home. Perhaps if the voting process was easier - NY has one of the worst records for numbers of voters - more people would vote. Perhaps. Unfortunately, that's the best most of us can do - is VOTE. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your friends - chat it up on social media. If we are complacent, the evils will compound. We must resist. We must insist. We MUST VOTE.
10
I find it appallingly ironic that a large number of Americans demonstrate more concern for the welfare of fetuses, rather for than for the children who are already here. Being 'pro-life' should also include being pro-children.
20
Being pro-children means being pro-choice. Children become adults, some of whom are women, who are intelligent enough to know when they are ready, both emotionally and financially, to raise a child.
10
If only those same adults were "intelligent enough to know when they are ready, both emotionally and financially," to assume the awesome responsibility to become sexually active, given that's how people become parents, intentionally or not. Being pro-choice should mean being able to make good choices and to live with the consequences.
@REJ, I agree completely. I was actually thinking about preventing conception, rather than encouraging it.
If Roe is overturned, and then all those less privileged babies!
Oh my! The boon in Trumpers babysitting jobs will skyrocket, aiding our MAGA economy.
3
Don't blame the Democrats for the demise/curtailment of the social/economic safety net. It is the fault of the Republicans who convinced individuals to vote against their interests.
Yes, the Republicans, DJT, & enablers appealed to Christian morality, when statistics show that the majority of people who receive abortions are Christians. Those charlatans appealed to members of the 99% who voted that envy, greed, Xenophobia, gays, etc., were the cause of their inability to get a job. Thanks to Fox News & all those other White Nationalist, anti-people of color, LGBT, disabled, elderly supported a narrative that if they eradicated the programs designed to assist all Americans, regardless of race/creed/sexuality/disability that their taxes would be like DJT's.
That nonsense was false, race bating, dog whistle political spin which so fractured the American electorate that they couldn't differentiate between Mrs. Clinton, a real candidate versus DJT, a boob tube con man.
Mr. Kristof, you nailed cause & effect. Few people with less than a HS education will become millionaires or that we are in danger from lettuce picking immigrants or that eradicating every subsidy that goes to any individual/family will eliminate the deficits & our taxes. To coal miners, rust belt folks, etc., you need a new occupation, an education, health care, government assistance because you are not entitled or DJT. MAGA for whom? The USA is a people coop not the DJT fiefdom of corporations.
2
Haley comes from one of the poorest states in the country with an abysmal rate of child poverty, lack of education and lack of health care. She knows well and good about poverty, she just doesn't care.
10
Thank you. Please keep writing.
7
With modern food production, and in a country where more food than we could ever eat is simply thrown away* rather than given or sold at a loss, hunger is purely a political choice.
This is not about charity, hard work, money, or any other excuse. We’ve decided that some kids need to starve or we would be living under Stalinism or something.
*I recommend watching this movie: http://www.foodwastemovie.com
Not only is it eye opening, it got my kid to eat vegetables.
3
"...other advanced countries." It's time for Americans to admit that they are no longer living in an advanced country. "Making America Great Again" is setting that in concrete, and even the Trumplicans will suffer in the end as they take us all down.
2
In our media saturated age, motivated by profit, the Stalin quote lives on: a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. May I use the pronoun we to state: this is the U.S.
5
Where were the parents of that 13 year old boy you mention?
It is not just the Trump Administration's callousness, but that of parents as well.
They too have a responsibility to make sure these children live in a safe place and have health care and food.
I am all for our Government programs that provide rent assistance, food stamps and health care. Parental training might be the next program we have to introduce in this country. People get pregnant when they do not know about or do not have access to birth control.
This maybe another reason to fund Planned Parenthood.
And Nikki Haley has shown her true colors since she became Ambassador to the United Nations. She is both arrogant and ignorant.
She needs to get out of her Ivory Tower and come down to earth, where real people live.
10
It’s not just children seized at the border who aren’t treated with compassion, but so are the children of parents who are useless and abusive.
5
You think providing and turning kids loose with their personal electronics is not neglect? Look around, folks. You can feel the loneliness as they tap, tap, tap and click, click, click.
8
Yes; and beware the fake empathy from the right who say we can't help children at the border before we help children here at home when they would not lift a pinky finger for an American child either.
3
‘The simple answer is that kids don’t vote” is exactly what the bureaucrats count on. Here’s a newsflash for them - KIDS GROW UP! Speaking as a former foster kid, and for all the foster kids who’ve found themselves caught up in a nightmarish web of adult inconsistencies and false hope, memory is long and most of us eventually learn that it’s better to get even than to get mad. Show me by your “actions” not your “words” that you stand by a kid that’s been “cast out” and I’ll stand by you with my vote.
5
For Republicans, children only count before they are born. After birth, they no longer matter.
5
Thank you, Mr. Kristof.
2
Here's how to eliminate childhood poverty and reduce childhood neglect in America:
First, create a reliable funding source for child support by removing the cap on Social Security contributions. Only the high earners who benefit from the Trump tax cut would pay more under a flat tax. Dedicate the added federal revenue to childhood support.
Next, replace the current piecemeal, bureaucratic federal/state child support programs with Medicare for all children, a monthly child support stipend for the mother or legal guardian of every child, and a subsidy for free, palatable breakfasts and lunches for every school child.
Why shouldn't children, our future taxpayers, benefit from American prosperity instead of suffer from American poverty?
5
I completely agree with this. If children were really as important as we give lip service to, then educators and child care providers would be the most highly paid workers in our society and there would be universal health care for all children. Sadly, Mr Kristof is correct is saying that because they don't vote, children are basically rendered unimportant.
8
Thank you for this article! This should be the HIGHEST priority issue in America right now.
Not only do we lack compassion for children, but we are facing a serious mental health crisis that affects all of us. (I don’t believe the stats that say mental health here is no worse than peer countries - look at the size of the homeless population right now! And those people don’t have access to healthcare, so how are their illnesses being documented?)
As a teacher, I’ve seen so many families that would have benefited from early education programs. I’ve also seen a few that benefited from Headstart, mentorship programs, etc. I’ve worked in poor schools and rich schools, and I know poor kids have just as much potential to do great things. By not giving poor kids opportunities, we are ruining their lives and missing out on all they could contribute as adults.
I’m tired of the American mentality of expecting people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. So many kids are born to drug addicted or mentally ill parents and they NEED programs to help them succeed. We are ~ the richest country in the world - how could we possibly deny them support?!? (Not to mention it’s a good economic investment)
10
I am a teacher in a Title 1 middle school. All of our students get free breakfast and lunch. On an average day between 80 and 90, out of about 680 students, are homeless. Many of them go home to dry ramen noodles for dinner because at 25 cents a package, at least their stomach is full. After countless parent conferences it is not that their families don't care about education. They do, with great determination. They believe that this will save their children from crushing poverty. But since they work 2 minimum wage jobs to support their children they aren't home in the evening. Many of them are bright, capable kids, but lack any idea of how to be a student. No one in their home has been able to teach them how to study. Yes, we need improved early childhood ed programs, but we need to continue that support. Class sizes at schools like mine should be smaller so we can help students who are struggling. There should be free, after school tutoring so kids can get homework help. And, because so many of these children live with extreme trauma, we need more school guidance counselors.
16
The very family and friends of mine that are now using the argument "we should be taking care of our own" are the same family and friends that say NO to any program, from health care to welfare, that would help our own. I don't have the energy to shake my head any longer; I only hang it in shame of what America has become.
11
Why does the wealthiest country in the history of the world neglect its own children? Because we don't see them as ours, but they are. They are our children. We need to think of all children as our own. If you need a selfish reason its pretty straight forward. Your own children (biological or adopted) will have to live in a world where so many children are neglected. That is not good for them.
9
Conservatives suffer from an inexplicably twisted vision of children. The recent changes in judicial policy portended by Justice Kennedy's retirement will obviously lead to an explosion of unwanted childbirths springing from conservatives' 'pro-life' position. They are only interested in childrens' lives in utero : growing up in 21st century America is nothing but COPING for the overwhelming majority of children forced to confront failing schools, obesity-inducing diets, random acts of senseless violence, all before shouldering extortionate debtloads after college.
9
Yes. All the alternative options to detention at the border should be adopted for non-violent, petty crimes in America, such as electric home monitoring, and periodic check-ins. It would be far cheaper, more humane, and wouldn't be so disruptive and damaging to the family and the psyche of the children.
2
American politicians love declaring to their adoring crowds that America is the greatest country on earth . If they and their followers truly believed that, they would do all they could to pull as many of their citizens out of abject poverty. It's a big deal to try to get them to to admit that there is such poverty.
I for one am tired of the claim that people are poor because they are lazy, and if they want SNAP benefits they should be made to work for them. I'd like to see any of those loudmouths try working, when suffering from extreme malnutrition. Would it bankrupt the United States to provide school lunch programs for everyone? Would it bankrupt the United States to provide decent schools for everyone? Would it bankrupt the United States to provide healthcare for everyone?
9
Nobody has malnutrition in the US. It is literally so rare, that most US doctors have never seen a case in 30 years of practice -- not even seen a case in medical school, as there are no cases to present.
And health care for everyone? as long it is solely for American citizens -- and no illegal alien, including kids, gets it at all -- then yes. Otherwise, no. I will not pay taxes to give free health care to the entirety of Central America and Mexico.
3
We don't, as a society, care about the issues Mr. Kristof raises here. Not really.
7
Welfare Reform was signed on August 22nd, 1996, less than 3 months before the 1996 Presidential Election. Since that time the number of those living in extreme poverty has gone from 636,000 to over 1.5 million (in 2013)
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/mar/02/bernie-s/...
Welfare Reform block granted the cash that supported aid to families. The result was predictable: southern states acted to greatly restrict who received welfare.
The attack on the poorest was bi-partisan. In 2008 both Obama and Clinton said they still supported Welfare Reform despite its effect on the most vulnerable.
If you want to tell the story of the growth in extreme poverty, if you are going to be truthful you have to begin by noting how complicit the Democrats were in attacking the poorest among us.
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/us/politics/11welfare.html
5
My white coworker in a Federal law enforcement workplace has also relegated her own children to the underclass as those described in this piece have been. Why does her 14-year old son weigh 400 pounds? Why is he already failing out of school and has to take remedial courses, once quaintly known as "summer school" in order to remain enrolled? And why does her house have no furniture in most of the rooms, with a kitchen featuring busted countertops and appliances wherever an angry fist has landed? Because her husband blows each and every paycheck at the casino situated near his workplace in a neighboring state and lies about what happened to the money. Even with a combined income that exceeds $200,000 the family lives hand to mouth and subsists on takeaway pizza, doughnuts, sugar soda and such garbage to the detriment of their children's health.
9
People who vote in November should realize that they are casting a vote for the future lives of their children.If they are brought to tears by parent child separations at the border, they need to at least have a lump in their throats when they realize how many children here have very little future.By so many metrics the United States is falling behind other democratic countries in Europe.What are our priorities if they are not for a better life for our children?
4
Liberal Democrat Obama was President for EIGHT years and for two years, he had a veto proof majority in both Houses of Congress.
What did he do in 8 years to solve this problem?
>> crickets <<
3
What mistreatment of immigrant children at the border is Philip Alston referring to? The United States does not prosecute or incarcerate migrant children apprehended at the border. It sends them to Office of Refugee Resettlement centers. These centers are not prisons. The staff encourages children to stay in the centers until they can be placed with their parents, relatives or guardians, but the children can leave if they want.
About 90 percent of the children in the ORR centers are unaccompanied children who cross the border alone. They come to America precisely because the poor of America are rich compared to poor people in other countries. Nearly half of the world’s population — more than three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty — less than $1.25 a day. These numbers apply to adults, not just to unemployed children.
9
The real story of children in America is worse than Kristof has painted. Officially, 41 million Americans live in poverty. But if you earn $1.00 above the federal poverty rate you aren't counted.
This leaves millions more experiencing poverty, but not considered poor. Wages, while increasing lately, were stagnant for 35 years forcing many women who wanted to care for their children into the paid workforce and forcing men and women to work two and three jobs to make ends meet.
Of all the Western industrialized countries we are the only one with no universal health care, no national paid parental leave policy, and no universal pre-school system.
We poisoned poor kids in Flint and immigrant kids in the fields where the pick our food. We lock them up more than any other country and until recently even sentenced them to death for their crimes.
This is what neoliberal economics looks like. There is no "we", there are only individuals climbing all over one another to get ahead.
Those at the top represent success and virtue. And those at the bottom, mostly poor children will be bludgeoned by this economy to either get ahead or fall to the social level where they belong. We call this the incentive of the marketplace.
In reality, it's an entire system of exploitation and child abuse.
6
If you look at the history of the arcs of empires - how they arose, and how they failed and fell - you find that they always became overextended, straining ever more desperately to find the money and people they used to feed their appetites.
And when these empires could no longer feed upon other countries, they turned upon their own people, dividing them up, separating out the poor, the weak, the sick, and the defenseless, devouring them from the “bottom” up, where the process was easiest and least expensive. But it’s never taken long before the infinite appetites of empires craved more fuel, and more and more people were designated undeserving of any life that supports life itself.
This empire, however one names it or speaks of it, has already reached our lower middle class, and when that happens, we might encounter an old dark joke known well to Europeans: Q: What are the symptoms of a failing empire? A: Everything.
We haven’t yet reached “everything" - not absolutely - but we’re fast closing in on it, and we've come to a final test. We can achieve unity sufficient to begin to regain control, or we can continue to invite and indulge all that separates us and go down with all the other empires. So far, no empire has ever survived.
6
Our focus is outward, not inward. We look to foreign countries for problems to solve and people to help all the while the cobblers children go without shoes. There are problems aplenty right here at home that need our attention yet we send billions of dollars overseas to support puppet oligarchs and dictators who prey on their people. We're buying friends. America's fear is that the UN will discover what already knew. We cant's see the forest of problem here for the trees on distant shores. Fix America First. If you need a list just look through the pages of this periodical. If you want a cause, read the opinion pages. If you're looking for someone to help, look to your neighbors.
1
Nikki Haley, former governor of So Carolina, should know that more than a fifth of her home state citizens' kids live in poverty. The posturing and actually stating that while knowing that people fully know differently is shameful as usual for this administration and America as a whole.
6
Thank you, Mr. Kristoff, I've been disappointed by the lack of outrage for our own poor during all the scorn heaped on Trump for his border policies. Trump and the GOP have failed American children and families by gutting the EPA and jeopardizing their health, cannibalizing our public education system to create more perks for the well-to-do, and making it easier for predatory lenders to abuse poor families. Unfortunately, the media has not featured dramatic photos or heart-wrenching recordings of Trump's cruelty to our own. And that's a shame on all of us.
8
as always, Mr Kristof, your writings help to educate me about the societal woes at home and around the world. thank you
2
Children are a nation's value, worth more than the gold in Ft. Knox. But why are they being neglected? Is it a failure of our advanced civilization? Or is it the simple reason that they can't vote?
It is a very depressing question, but quite apparently our society has no heart for the weak.
3
To my knowledge, nobody has been held criminally responsible for the water situation in Flint, MI. Why is that? Republicans created a horrible mess and have done nothing to correct it. At the very least those responsible could be held accountable.
Jesus said there will always be poor people on earth. It would be nice if officials in our government didn't work so hard to add to their numbers.
7
How many children living in poverty are living with single parents who are not supported with child support from the biological fathers? The elephant in the room is lack of available birth control
here and in Central America.
13
Nigeria comes to mind when reading this article. Because of rampant corruption deriving from oil wealth, there is no free health care. The result is that Nigerians must pay themselves for essential operations. I have a friend who will likely die because she cannot afford the 15,000 USD necessary for a blood clot removal operation. Yes, things are just as bad in the US. Have we reached the level of Nigeria?
6
Yes, thanks to the evil of OBAMACARE with high deductibles.
1
The reason is, most of us blame the parents for the children's poverty, disease, missed meals, and poor education. Same with the separated children of asylum seeker parents at our border. It is easy to do in a culture that clings to the "self-made man" and "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" myths. Today, every candidate running for office claims to have grown up in poverty ("My family didn't have much") or some kind of family hardship ("My father died when I was six") which, through sheer will power, ceaseless work, and clean living, they overcame to get a six-figure income and private school for their kids. Rarely do they mention any government aid, full scholarships or laws that kept them from starving or opened doors of opportunity for them to walk through. To hear them tell it, it was the devoted widowed or abandoned mother who heroically worked two or more menial jobs (no mention of who looked after her small children while she worked) who single-handedly freed them from the same life of poverty. Those heroic, short-on-details stories mean that the middle and upper classes today can blame parents, ignore poor children and then blame them as adults too if they don't overcome their circumstances. It's a very useful myth.
9
The very low priority that this country gives to its children and their development is exactly why we have a self interested narcissist in the Oval Office. Our practices seem inevitably to lead us to the totalitarian rule we are rushing into. Combine this with the disregard for maintaining a middle class, and we become a third world country.
5
upset about crying children being separated from their parents? then take a harder look at inner-city and rural america where it's done routinely during drug raids, overdoses, and domestic violence. i taught middle school in a poverty-stricken region and witnessed it every. stinking. day. never saw it on tv and never will.
12
I doubt that many of the NYT subscribers commenting have lived in poverty, have friends/relatives in the poverty cycle, or have invested themselves in activities to assist those who are in poverty
7
And, we please acknowledge that children are most likely to be sexually, physically and psychologically abused at the hands of their parent or guardian than from a stranger? Over the past 10 years, more than 20,000 American children are believed to have been killed in their own homes by family members. That is nearly four times the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The child maltreatment death rate in the US is triple Canada’s and 11 times that of Italy. Millions of children are reported as abused and neglected every year. How do Americans reconcile that with our claims to Christian family values?
5
The war on youth started in 1980 with the election of Reagan. Basically almost everything that helped the young was attacked, up to and including accesablity to college.
I am still amazed America let it happen, at all....
1
Americans now seem to equate compassion with weakness and brutality with strength, and strength is valued above all things by most Trump supporters. Therefore, cruelty and brutality are seen as crucial to national security. This is totally inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus, and yet Evangelical Christians support this administration overwhelmingly. Sad and terrifying.
8
Overseas friends ask "why do you pay Federal Taxes?" They think it's morally bankrupt and stupid that we pay for children's education largely out of real estate taxes. "That would mean that poor kids don't get a decent education! How do you compete globally unless you educate everyone? Is that why you put so many people in prison?"
In other western countries, Federal taxes go to Education, Healthcare and Infrastructure. In the US, the Feds have pushed education off onto real estate taxes, healthcare onto employers and we don't do much infrastructure, anymore.
Sadly, I don't see this changing unless we get the money out of politics. Other countries are doing so much more for the middle class, with so much less!
8
Clearly, relying on the USA Government to take care of all children, is not working, and has never worked. This includes all Political Parties, especially the major two: Democrats and Republicans. Neglected Adults should also be included with the neglected kids. ----- Thus, relying on more Early Childhood Programs via The USA Government, as the World Bank President recommends, is not the answer.
3
Here is one excerpt from the United Nations Report on the extreme poverty in the US:
"The United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries.
The $1.5 trillion in tax cuts in December 2017 overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and worsened inequality. The consequences of neglecting poverty and promoting inequality are clear.
The United States has one of the highest poverty and inequality levels among the OECD countries, and the Stanford Center on Inequality and Poverty ranks it 18th out of 21 wealthy countries in terms of labour markets, poverty rates, safety nets,
wealth inequality and economic mobility.
But in 2018 the United States had over 25 per
cent of the world’s 2,208 billionaires. There is thus a dramatic contrast between the immense wealth of the few and the squalor and deprivation in which vast numbers of Americans exist.
For almost five decades the overall policy response has been neglectful at best, but the policies pursued over the past year seem deliberately designed to remove basic protections from the poorest, punish those who are not in employment and make even basic health care into a privilege to be earned rather than a right of citizenship."
4
We were horrified when a N Korean defector, near death, had worms. Now we know American kids are in the same shape.
2
I want to be optimistic about working to improve these problems, but it is difficult. The level of national selfishness is astonishing. There is little sense of common purpose, and we sit around watching political grudge matches for entertainment. Poverty remains entrenched: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/10/06/americans-deepest-in-pov... . This effects entire families. There are a few exceptions, groups publicized for their charitable work, but this is not a national trend.
We cannot fix roads and bridges, we cannot cut the cost of health care and consistently work to a stable system, we have the worst job retraining record in the modern developed world, we are at the top of developed countries with economic inequality, we incarcerate more people of color than all the slaves in colonial America, we abuse the first amendment to give power to corporations while gutting collective bargaining, we won't deal with economic inequality and increasingly give things to the upper 10%...the list is exhausting.
Maybe some of the states, those who are better off, can do things on their own, but the poorer the state, the greater child poverty, and the more they'll need federal help. That is not going to arrive in the near future and is not on a wish list for current federal legislative majorities.
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Those who oppose reproductive freedom for women, oppose a safe, regulated abortion if needed, contraceptives, health screening, etc. never talk about the children. Imposing their version of Christianity and morality is what this is all about.They never get behind programs or create them that help children when they are born, especially children of color. People need the opportunity to make a decent living and from there better decisions follow. The working poor depend on the safety net to get by and Trump is big on cutting that to give wealthy people such as himself and outrageous tax cut. Does he know how many in the military are on WIC and food stamps?
15
I taught community college in Arizona for many years, and it revulsed me that while I had decent health insurance coverage through my district, many of my students didn't. Why was I covered when they weren't? (Many slip through the cracks despite provisions through the ACA that they can remain on their parents' plan into their early twenties.) My students -- our future -- could not get decent health care, but I could? Such a system is insane.
So it's not just the youngest children we need to worry about. A country that fails to take care of its own -- its future generations -- how can such a society prosper or even sustain itself? Maybe it can't; we in the U.S. just haven't figured that out yet.
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Mr. Kristof is definitely to be applauded (unlike Ambassador Haley) for bringing to the national awareness the tragic plight of so many American children, and their families.
Unfortunately, as Americans we have become accustomed to plugging into our consciousness the daily reality of extreme poverty affecting millions (yes, that's millions) of lives in this country, with the result that we have become "ho-hum" about it because we believe that it doesn't really affect us directly. Well, it does if we call ourselves civilized.
Poverty is rooted in jobs--or lack of jobs, that is--if you trace poverty backwards in time, and the demise of decent jobs, they converge, especially since the 1970s. As our economic picture in this country has devolved into a corporate-based employment picture, finding good, full-time jobs has almost become a luxury! Throw in racial prejudice, and poverty looms before us.
We need to vote for congressional representatives who are willing to make jobs the centerpiece of her or his campaign strategy, addressing poverty as a human rights issue, as well as one of economic policy.
For starters, candidates need to stop relying on being fed by corporate donors--how much change can we see in the poverty/job relationship if the very creators of poverty are literally paying for senators and representatives, once in office, to create policies and bills (such as taxation) that favor their needs and not those of needy families.
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You omit a biggie: about 30% of our babies do not receive maternal/dyadic care. Daycare is institutional care. We know institutions do not provide what babies need (Romanian orphans). Yet it's ok if the baby sleeps at home?
Dropping off babies at centers when they are a month old has been normalized-- in part due to a compassionate impulse not to demonize poor women or single moms who MUST work, but this means daycare's disadvantages no longer receive much scrutiny. It is basically feminist heresy to declare that what may be good for women's economic lives may be bad for babies. We're just not supposed to mention it.
Secure attachment within the dyad is the decoder ring for later resiliency, agency, emotional self regulation, and an internal locus of control. Secure attachment is the anti-ACE. If we want more functional, less angry people we need to do a better job providing the kind of maternal care babies evolved to get, and still need. The existence of daycare as unremarkable & routine is ongoing disinformation about babies' innate needs.
Heckman estimates the rate of return on money spent in early childhood is 13% -- money "earned" by the later savings, due to better outcomes for the helped kids. We ought to subsidize maternal home care for a year, and realize a 13% return on that investment with better attachment and fewer problems down the line.
The way to happy functionality for humans has a very labor- intensive beginning.
.
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So women with careers should quit work after having a baby, and then stay home and be housewives the rest of their lives?
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Where are you getting that notion?
I suggested subsidizing the first year as a basic minimum, for babies to develop secure attachment.
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Why do we provide universal health care for senior citizens (which is expensive) but not for children (which would be cheap)?
I think a better question is, why don't we provide universal health care for all citizens?
And to extend that, why is there no political will to create shared benefits for all of us? Like universal childcare and free tuition at public universities not just for first time college students but all citizens who we all know will be required to be life-long learners in order to keep being employable throughout their lives? How about funding our infrastructure with well maintained roads, bridges, clean water and a distributed power grid (solar panels for all)?
When we are means tested for public benefits, it creates meanness: it leads people to question why some get benefits and some don't. Look to programs like Social Security, which is not means tested and as a result is one of the most popular government programs ever: everyone pays in, and everyone then benefits. This is a proven model for how to put in place successful and popular government programs.
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Thank you for this, Mr. Kristof.
According to Maine’s Equal Justice Partners, there are about 43,000 children living in poverty in Maine, of which 20,000 live in so-called deep poverty, living on half the poverty income. This is from a study taken from 2011 to 2015. Rates of poverty in the more rural, remote parts of the state are worse.
Many young people leave Maine, hoping for better life chances in other areas of the country. As a direct result, businesses over time will have fewer and fewer possible employees to choose from, creating a crisis in labor shortages.
The struggle for justice never ends.
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We expect our government and states to help those less fortunate, especially the kids and the elderly. They don't and won't. We read reports of people who take advantage of programs. Most are ridiculous and not true. Some people actually call welfare and food stamps crutches. People are shamed. It is all nonsense.
This is the first article I have read in a long time calling out problems for kids in America besides those getting shot at. There has been a lot of media focus on the immigration issues, but not enough on the domestic issues. I hope you continue to outline the problems in each state and educate people on what they do not want to see.
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Actually, those programs are all horrifically abused and the monies spent on them wasted -- as selfish lazy parents STEAL the child's benefits and spend it on themselves.
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Thanks, Nicolas, for being the first I have read to link the treatment of children at our boarder to our general approach to children, especially poor children, in our country. Many strongly support family value for besieged refugees, but ignore such value for our internal refugees subjected to poverty, discrimination, systemically-enforced inequality, and violence similar to that driving people to our borders. Time for all of us of good will to highlight and advocate for the coordinated, resourced interventions needed to insure we have a productive, employed citizen base in the future.
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I look at all these so-called billionaire philanthropists (Oprah, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg) for starters) who live totally detached from the type of lives most of us live. They live secure in gated communities; use private transportation only, from limos to jets; spend enough on amenities each month to feed whole villages, have multiple homes and vehicles. And we think this is all fine. Why not tax 100% of all annual income from any source, over $10million? Who needs more than that to live well? With all that tax money we can start to provide some of the services we need. Subsidize education and healthcare. Repair and replace rotting infrastructure. The problem is we've let ourselves be conned into thinking that it's perfectly fine to have an economic system that allows people to amass much more wealth than they and their immediate families will ever need. Why is this okay?
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Yes, the billionaires do have a responsibility to others, often forgotten by them. But they are few. The 'middle class', those of us earning median income or so, are responsible, too. Bigger houses; bigger, more expensive cars; more lavish vacations. We all could redirect some of our income to helping others, individually and collectively. Pointing to billionaires shifts the argument away from us. Yet it is us who need to step up as well.
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As things are, I would advise you to prepare to be reeducated in a Homeland. Like one of the enumerated ones from "A Handmaid's Tale" because that is what is coming down the pike for all those who venture a criticism against the wealthy and powerful in our new Empire.
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I trust philanthropists like Gates to spend their money more effectively than the government. His billions are going to neglected health problems and global poverty. If the government taxed those billions, they’d probably end up in some defense contractor’s pocket instead.
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Most of the significant statistics reflecting 21st Century American performance are less than encouraging. The most portentous is the fact that a culture that neglects the welfare and truthful education of its children is preparing its own doom.
I hear those on the hard right justify their indifference by vilifying the victims and their parents even as they criticize my puny contribution to offset the pitiful deprivations. They don't seem to have a grip on their underlying fears and readily accept the meanness and nonsense cast out by TV demagogues. I wonder how they would explain those ideas to a desperate mother and her hungry child.
I'm old and I'm tired. But I learned long ago that my Creator did not give me a sense of humor just for entertainment - it's really for endurance. So I have searched the history of similar scenarios and found the final consolation of the last optimist in the Soviet Union:
"Life is difficult, but fortunately, short."
In sad moments I stare in the mirror and repeat that. Then i give thanks and grin because I know it won't be long before I am called back for a new assignment, having learned enough from past mistakes that 'll do better next time around.
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I'm not so sure that Nick's intro of catering to elderly (who vote) is operant on the political right. Attacking Medicare, undercutting Affordable Care, gerrymandering and suppressing voting are not 'elder care'. Those are democratic values that Republicans pay lip service but are always under fire in congress and statehouses. Since elected officials are more concerned today with reelection and their own careers, we must direct attention not only to children, immigrants or not, but 'we, the people' in general. That's Democrats when you enter the voting booth in November. Pay attention till then.
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I think there would be more help for these children if it could be provided without benefit to their parents.
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I worked for nearly twenty years with poor families and I do understand your point, Joel. School breakfast and lunch programs and free Universal Pre- Kindergarten (as in NYC) are good examples of benefiting children directly. But, generally speaking, the best way to help poor kids is to help their families. However, getting past the lack of compassion towards the parents is a big stumbling block, just as you say.
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@Joel: Of course, their parents were once the severely neglected children, and their parents before them, and their parents before them. The point is to break the cycle, not blame the parents who are a product of gross inequality themselves.
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I think that you are wrong. Because, yes, that really is who we have become as a country.
Walking that back, we found out these past few weeks that a world’s best practice public education within NYC is not
widely distributed across the city’s schools. Access to limited places at a single high school is restricted. The full curiculum across all of the city’s high schools is not offered. Only a small sector of the population is being educated to cope in the world and to survive in the modern American economy.
Imagine what kind of education the parents of this generation now raising children in NYC received, and the generation before that. Pre-school across the US is the exception, not the norm. The Department of Education needs a shake up. Right now it’s getting a shake down. The underlying philosophy is pure selfishness.
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BBB -- If you are referring to the NY Times article about NYC's specialized high schools -- Stuyvesant, Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech -- I think the take away is just the opposite. They provide excellence in education at no cost to children who demonstrate their ability get the most out of it; many of the students at these schools are poor and are either immigrants or the children of immigrants.
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I think that IS BBB's point. Why should a strong education be limited to a teeny tiny percentage of students? Why is it an "exception not a norm" that high schools in the biggest city in the US have a full curriculum?
So true, awful schools in NYC.
My husband and I raised three children in NYC and spent a good portion of his teachers salary and my nurses salary on private schools for our kids, then helped with private elementary school for our grand children all while paying whopping taxes and with constant sense of doom and personal danger.
A lot of Congresspeople have been negligent for a very long time, and yet they are re elected decade after decade.
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Great article! The US needs to be reminded of the dramatic change over the past 50 years of the demographic composition, higher levels of poverty, and lack of decent health care for children. We need more women at the top in government to address these issues, they are usually more compassionate and have hands on experience with them.
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We need a different class of leaders, be they woman or men; we need people who are committed to their constituency, not to their own greed.
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higher levels of poverty over the past 50 years? complete and total nonsense, people living below inflation adjusted poverty line is less than half of what is was 50 years ago
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A lot more is involved in this problem than the ubiquitous complaint about Trump. He's been in office a year and a half, and this problem started in the 1970's. If anyone is reading carefully, family breakdown, lack of parental and elder guidance and control of the time of children, rampant existence of drugs, lack of "grit" in pursuing education, as is mentioned frequently, and lack of a set of realistic goals to achieve, etc. Many things are at work here, and it has been going on for years. Read Robert B. Putnam's Our Children from 2015--it is shocking for its picture of wasted lives. Unfortunately, neglect of children is not a "government" issue amenable to a few expensive programs. It is a moral and family issue going to the heart of human life. It revolves around the question of "How do we live?", figuring that out, and then rolling up our sleeves and doing it. If any one of the new generations wanted a life project for themselves, this is it. This is where altruism and hard work hit the road, but it probably starts with a personal sense of anguish over it.
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Geoff, your comments have a lot of truth in them.
I meet regularly with a young woman from a very disadvantaged background. She admits her poor choices in the past have caused her to end up in a difficult situation now, and have definitely affected her 3 children. She has had support from our local health department nurses and social workers who visit regularly and coach her on nutrition and health care for her children. Her husband works a low paying factory job.
These types of situations take a network of solutions. Even with the best government support their lives will be difficult because they don't know what they don't know. I agree we must have policy solutions that support families and children. However, those who really would like to make a difference must do as you say, roll up their sleeves and get involved and dirty. It's the one-on-one relationships that can make the most difference.
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Interesting that the timing of these problems is about the same as when middle class wages started stagnating and the gap between rich and poor started growing bigger.
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Do you remember when the GOP used to identify themselves as "The party of family values?" They stopped using that phrase when Sarah Palin was chosen as the VP nominee a decade ago because her family was the counter example of that. Now with the cutting of funding for children's programs and the less fortunate they are demonstrating that they are the party of destruction. Niki Haley is merely a good soldier of the Trump team.
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When I see all these Democrats, including mayors, governors, running to the border to show how much they care about illegals, I also see poor AMERICAN children in their cities and states neglected.
So, the middle class who doesn't want children out of wedlock and pay taxes for their own kids and for social services, food stamps, section 8, welfare for the poor, including citizens and ILLEGALS, would have to fork even more money for the whole world that is invading the country.
We should: encourage birth control, responsibility, marriage, education, respect of the laws. All laws, including respect for authority, including the police, immigration laws.
90 percent of America's live on 40 percent of the wealth. So why is it that they put up with this distribution in a democracy? The wealthy threaten them with their jobs, i.e. move overseas and keep them busy fighting culture wars or real wars. Democrats need to fight the wealth distribution war they have the numbers they have the issues. Programs to reduce student loan debt, increase minimum wage, reduce cost of medical care, reduce the cost of higher education and a plan, not just money for infrastructure.
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My husband and I were just speaking about compassion over dinner last night. I was commenting that I don't believe it's a characteristic of American culture. When we take our children to rallies, protests, community events, I was explaining I'm not trying to indoctrinate them in liberal versus progressive or democratic versus republican, my goal is to try and model the politics of compassion. Here's a Facebook post from the Dalai Lama:
Dalai Lama
June 22 at 5:30 AM ·
Compassion we have towards others when we think of each other as being the same as human beings - that's genuine compassion. You can even extend that kind of compassion towards your enemies. Despite their negative attitude towards you, they are still human beings so are still deserving of your compassion. Love and compassion like that, genuine compassion, is not mixed with attachment and so is unbiased.
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This is what happens when you let the wealthy take over a country. When the people don’t do the work to responsibly own their government. When a learning support system functions to control instead of building independence, exploration, and creativity. This where our failure to grow democracy and realize full potential begins.
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When you let the poor take over a country, it’s called communism. Is that what you’re after?!
1
I’m a strong believer in Michael Jackson’s lyric, “If you can’t feed your baby… then don’t have a baby.” I would never bring a child into this world without having adequate means to raise that child. Regardless of one’s financial situation, I would not dispute anyone having one child, especially when the biological clock for parenthood is really ticking by age 30+. Maybe the same for a second child. But three or more children… well, that should be a “luxury” for only those who can really afford it. Meanwhile, the photo accompanying this article about families who cannot afford their children is showing 5 children, with a caption suggesting that they are all from the same very poor family. Personal responsibility, folks. Sorry if this is not politically correct. How about stopping after one or two kids? And don’t get me started on pro-life conservatives. Birth control and abortions should be made easily and widely available.
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But this begs the question: these children have been born, through no choice or fault of their own, and now they are suffering. Do we as a society have any moral obligation to help them?
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@Wendy Redal, I think this is a "yes and" situation. Yes the children have been born and need better care and upbringing, AND we need to address the issue of irresponsible child bearing and other terrible behavior. The two are not opposed; on the contrary they are inextricably linked from one generation to the next. A child who can be educated and given tools for success is less likely to repeat the pattern, right? So it is not simply a "moral obligation to help" the children individually, in a vacuum, it is a moral obligation for the sake of the common good.
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@RE. Thank you for that thoughtful comment. That was very well said. I understand where Wendy Redal is coming from in her comment but your "yes and" reply sums things up nicely.
1
While middle class people put off having children into their 30's and 40's because they feel the need to be financially secure before they take on the responsibility of children, the poor often just have children with the expectation that government programs will pay for their food, housing and medical care. Marriage is avoided because it reduces access to government programs. Mr. Kristof thinks those middle class individuals who pay for the social welfare programs and often never even have children of their own should feel guilty because the children of irresponsible poor people are poor. If you can't afford to raise children without government assistance, you shouldn't be starting a family. There needs to be consequences for irresponsible family planning behavior. Work requirements and group homes would be a good starting point.
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Could we maybe just agree that providing a good education for all children beginning at preschool would be a good start to raising an educated citizenry? An education that includes information about family planning (yes, birth control and abortion), civic responsibility (including how government is supposed to work), money management, etc?
It doesn't seem like this should be controversial but in our current environment, the conversation often devolves into screaming at each other instead of finding reasonable solutions.
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Hi Diane, I never implied we should deny children educational opportunity at least through high school. What I said is unmarried parents who can't afford to raise their children should be required to work while their children are in pre-school and probably should be living in government supervised group homes with chores, curfews, and limited privacy. There have to be negative consequences for irresponsible behavior or there is no reason for people to appropriately.
But you omit the fact that paying for daycare often takes most of the paycheck, and still doesn't cover a full day of work including travel time. Our schools and institutions assume one person is available during the day for caring for sick children, school half-days, doctors' visits, etc. And, even when in full day school, the school day doesn't equal a work day even without travel time.
Even with the best planning, many of us are powerless to anticipate the changes in our workplaces. (And do you think it is mere coincidence that the same political party that is most punitive and restrictive of health care, day care, etc, is also the party that wishes to deny birth control?)
This was a great article, and certainly brings the issue of children's health and welfare to center stage. In my opinion, it is arrogance and a complete lack of compassion that prevents many in the US from even contemplating helping children, or the poor in general. Yes, some do not have great work ethic, but many do. Yes, they made bad choices and/or were unlucky. But, what if all the money the US is spending today on contracts for retention centers to house immigrant children separated from their parents was spent to give children health care? What if citizens in the top 0.1% actually paid the income taxes that most US citizens pay? Perhaps homelessness could be reduced, and the rising inequality of wealth could at last be subdued. If simply providing universal health care for children could reduce homelessness, wouldn't that be a small price to pay to help our society.
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The question is will the Democratic mainstream operatives advocate policies that actually help the poor, including the 25% of children living in poverty, or continue to support business interests who presently constitute its donor class.
12
Why do we provide universal health care for senior citizens (which is expensive) but not for children (which would be cheap)?
I am always nervous with sentences like this. Because rather than help kids it will be used to justify cuts in health care for older people. I know this is not remotely Nicholas' intent. But continually we are pitted against each other. And it works.
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Even worse, why do we provide universal health care (not really--only if said senior purchases supplemental insurance) for senior citizens when we could be funding evermore tax cuts for the rich and corporations, when we could be building up our military with more weapons of mass destruction and other such toys? The question should be why do we vote against our own interests and elect people who are bought by the donors who purchased them?
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because all we know about politics and politicians we get from advertisements on social media where money talks . Actually spending money is now a form of speech, perhaps the only form of speech relevant to government
Very nicely said. I agree completely.
If a people are judged by how the treat the least of their brothers, Americans are not fulfilling the demands of common humanity, much less the injunctions of the religion that Evangelicals claim to follow. Apparently the only children to whom the country now has an obligation are those not yet born. And perhaps the immediate family of Donald Trump, whose enrichment is now a national priority.
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Thank you for pointing the way to a healthy future -- not just for Americans, for everyone, everywhere.
I remember when we read about child armies, young boys taught to butcher even younger "enemy" children.
Yesterday, Assad bombed more hospitals. The plight of Syria's children is not even covered anymore: it makes us uncomfortable; it makes Trump's Kremlin role model look bad. It distracts from the World Cup.
I have watched a number of older white right-leaning TV authorities take offense at comparisons of America to awful tyrannies from the past. Their argument? "Because we are American, we never do bad things. Don't anyone dare point out any atrocities committed by our federal employees."
The state-sanctioned abuse of children in the name of "security" or "justice" or "education" or even "child protection" is an ongoing atrocity that all Americans ought to be outraged by. As Elijah Cummings said: "We are better than that! So much better!"
But to truly be what Americans have long claimed to be: "better than [at least most] others," we have to look at the actual facts on the ground.
Justice, love, liberty and above all Good Mental Health Care for all children. Beginning with these foreign children, these indigenous children, most of whom do not even comprehend what is being done to them or why.
Reunite all those children. Reform & overhaul the "foster care" system. Then, only then: Everything Else.
8
Spot on, Nick.
Was actually having this conversation with my old college buddy Will, who traveled with you to Africa on win a trip and is now a vice principal at a high school in Durham, NC. He's fighting the good fight everyday for his students and remains hopeful but it's tough at that age... need to start earlier and focus on younger kids before it's too late.... which is not being done enough here.
Separately, as you mentioned the tax cuts are going to eat into critical services for kids... and I would like to highlight SNAP -- which primarily serves the working poor, elderly, disabled and CHILDREN and is a tiny part of our overall budget. The false narrative that lazy folks are taking advantage of the system with food stamps and buying steak dinners crushing our budget makes me so angry.
First, this is not the norm, at all. I invite lawmakers to come to my neighborhood and hang out at the check out counter of our Associated (local supermarket); and watch how families on SNAP ration what they buy, often returning to the aisles during mid-check out to make a trade-off of basic staples.
Second, CHILDREN! We're cool with them being collateral damage and going hungry? Apparently so, at least to a group of elected officials and their supporters. Nutrition impacts behavior, learning and development... these are key foundations and without them a significant portion of our younger generation are being set up for failure.
We're greater than this.
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"We're greater than this." Are we? Actions speak louder than words.
I wish we were greater. In fact, reading many of the comments on Mr. Kristof's piece, its hard not to come to the conclusion that maybe we're not. After all, our Liar-in-Chief is just as, if not more, popular than he was when re-elected. And I would bet money on Republicans holding on to the House and the Senate.
I used to feel like you, but have begun to believe that one of the ways we have coped with (and in doing so, enabled) injustice is to claim that we are greater than this. It now feels like aspiration in place of action to me. That doesn't mean we can't become better than we are now. But that would take real change, which I don't see coming. So, let's face it - this is actually who we are.
A very important and instructive article. I have done research and written about children's well-being, their agency, and the wonder of their lives for over 40 years. We need not only to invest in and protect them, but appreciate what they contribute to our lives while children. We of course need to nourish and educate children and it is true that children are our future. But we should never forget that the future of childhood is the present!
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“World Bank President Jim Yong Kim cites a study indicating that if the U.S. invested in effective early childhood programs, the lifelong benefits would be so transformative that American inequality could be reduced to Canadian levels.”
The mistake too many left liberals make is assuming that other people agree that inequality is a bad thing. However, I’ve had enough. In-depth conversations with upper-class conservatives to realize that, for them, inequality is a feature, not a bug, of the current system. A permanent underclass is the best way to ensure that their off-spring continue to benefit from the unearned wealth and privilege that they consider their birthright.
Furthermore, a level playing field would threaten the self-serving illusion that their wealth means they are instrinsically superior, and therefore deserving of their privilege.
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Yup.
The moneyed class: still Calvinist after all these years.
2
It's true, inequality is not the best word because what we strive for is not equality but rather Walton and Yum brand billionaires off the backs of the armies of their workers who live in abject poverty, who can't afford to go to the doctor, who get thrown in prison for smoking pot, and who need foodstamps to survive.
3
True. And a permanent underclass of low-skilled, poorly schooled, desperate workers provides a low cost labour pool for business owners and employers.
1
It's very easy to bash Trump, but the country has been standing still long before he arrived.
The way we deliver education services hasn't changed in over a hundred years, except that student-to-teacher ratios are much higher now. The way we deliver health care and pay for it is hampered by backwards ideology and corporate interests. Higher taxes and/or more deficit spending haven't made significant improvements in the past.
Perhaps a partial solution lies with more military spending, not less. Draft kids, not adults (just don't let them fight until they're adults). Military training can give discipline, skills, and purpose to young men and women. After they serve, they'd receive British-style medical care for the rest of their lives. Some would also be involved with the emergence of new military technologies, which would create new industries (past examples include the Internet, satellites and lasers, to name but a few). Yes, the military smacks of socialism, but it is socialism that is accepted in this country by liberals, conservatives and Trump supporters.
7
American kids hear from childhood how much they cost their families, their school districts, and communities.They hear people call them "resources" and "customers." They attend falling-down schools with broken water fountains, 30-year old textbooks, inadequately trained and paid teachers. Then they see legislatures and city councils refuse to fund schools, teen programs, after-school recreation activities, libraries, or meals for hungry kids. People glare at them in restaurants, at malls, even on sidewalks.
American kids know how little this country values them.
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American kids also hear what an inconvenience it would be when there’s talk of reasonable gun safety legislation proposed. That it would infringe on the adults’ rights and their fun. School shooting after school shooting, we’ve learned how little children’s lives cost to the older folks in power.
89
Everything in this country has been monetized, including people. If they can't make money for you, throw them away like tissue.
2
NYT: Older replies disappear when new replies are posted. Can you fix it, please? Thanks.
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Blair's investment in early childhood ed could pay off because students could access quality education as they grew older. Students here in the U.S. who need the path to the equivalent of A levels to make school a learning experience are out of luck in all but the most well-funded districts. If NYC, a rich city, cannot manage to provide enough seats in advanced courses to meet demand, how is the rest of the nation going to do so? Bootstraps?
8
College is not "free" in the UK -- not at all. The cost is similar to what we Americans would pay for an average state university.
You correctly state that uber-liberal, blue-blue-blue Democratic NYC has some of the worst poverty -- worst public schools -- most segregated schools AND neighborhoods -- I say: liberals, fix your OWN problems before asking US for more money!
1
According to Swedish academic Hans Rosling, about one billion people in the world live on $2 per day. At that level, they don't have running water or likely even a clean source nearby. They don't have fuel or electricity and are too poor to send their kids to school or even sleep on mattresses.
Maybe that is the poverty that Nikki Haley was talking about measuring?
The good news is that there were about two Billion people who lived like that only 20 years ago which is the greatest decrease of that kind of poverty in the history of the world.
11
Birth control?
"...the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; those who are in the shadows of life; the sick, the needy and the handicapped. "
~Last Speech of Hubert H. Humphrey
"A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization."
~Samuel Johnson
"The point is that you can't be too greedy."
~Donald Trump, Republican superhero, sociopath, tax-dodger, racist, fake Christian and Birther Liar
America is a cruel Calvinistic Christian fraud of a nation that loves to abuse the poor, incarcerate it and throw away the key.....and if that doesn't work, strip it of any hope, healthcare and humanity and hope they all drop dead from grinding poverty.
This nation needs higher taxes on the rich.
It just cut taxes on the rich.
It's a sick nation hijacked by sick Republican pirates hellbent on gilding the rich and killing the poor.
And they call themselves 'Christians' as Jesus violently throws up.
216
America is a country where, if you or any member of your family is in need, you will be told to drop dead.
Are you unable to find a job? Drop dead and don't burden us with your misery.
Are you in need of medical care that you cannot afford even with insurance? Why didn't you save more money?
Why did you have children if you can't support them.
Why don't you go back to where you came from? It's your own fault.
And the best of all: you're not the right skin color, sex, etc., you are guilty even if you didn't do it. Therefore we can shoot to kill.
2
Thank you for speaking up about the neglect of the needs of children who cannot speak up for themselves. All children need safety, food, and love. To ignore those needs is to turn our backs on what is most essential.
But i think it is important to keep a spotlight on the specific plight of the refugee children who have been taken away from the parents and warehoused alone. The level of terror and agony they experience is a trauma that needlessly destroys their emotional security. I would like those who "don't care" to imagine how their own child might feel.
6
"The level of terror and agony they experience is a trauma that needlessly destroys their emotional security."
My comment has less to do with immigrant policy (I think Hispanic immigrants are great) then a push back against the above idea.
There is no reason for kids in a group home to experience terror and agony. Explain to them mom will be back as soon as she has tried her best to complete the requirements to be a US citizen, and she is a hero for doing it. Give them snacks and delicious food and other kids to play with and a caring adult to come in their room at night to comfort them, and it will be an adventure for them.
Go to some right wing blogs. Here's what you will read:
If it's so bad for immigrant kids to be part from their mothers for a month, then:
"What about single mothers?" "What about working mothers?" "What about career mothers?" "What about divorce?"
1
I don’t dispute Nick’s claim that we don’t do right by our kids by galaxies in this country: I’ve been writing about this here myself for years, and not in a favorable way. However, some context to the reality could be helpful.
Overwhelmingly, our immense social spending focuses on subsistence-maintenance and healthcare for our elderly, our infirm, and our otherwise indigent and very poor. Some of that immense support redounds to the interests of children, but it’s not focused on supporting their development of middle-class life-outcomes later in life. Accordingly, they become the parents of the next generation whose treatment of children continues to be legitimately criticized.
If so MUCH of our available resources are dedicated to mere subsistence and healthcare, where is the money to come from for vastly improved education on a FAR more universal basis than we see today in America? Without that vastly improved education, how are these children going to build the kinds of lives that a generation hence will deliver the taxes required to rebuild the infrastructure that Nick complains of? Or the challenges of THOSE days, instead of merely today’s?
We need to reduce the overall dependency of our people on government largesse … somehow.
We need to get …
5
… people NOW saving more for retirement and for elder-healthcare that’s NOT so dependent on taxes to satisfy. Only in this way can we carve-out the resources required to break increasingly intense cycles of dependency that preclude us from investing in the legitimate needs of our posterity, of our children.
It’s easy to point out our most obvious failings. It’s less easy to define workable solutions.
Let’s just tax more? Good luck. We are not going to see new taxes or significantly increased existing taxes. Draw down our large defense expenditures? How, in the face of LIBERAL demands that we continue to robustly defend the Liberal Order globally and when our allies remain unwilling AND unable to repurpose resources to defense from their OWN creaking welfare states? No, pretty much, we need to work within the constraints of what we already have to spend.
That means tough choices about relative priorities.
4
"Mere healthcare" as you call it Richard actually does pay for itself if provided to children for free. If measured in terms of the increased taxes they pay the bulk of free healthcare for children is paid back over their lifetimes. I am guessing that education does as well. Unfortunately the GOP opposes such long-term investment in people even if it is shown to increase wealth of the country eventually. They prefer to, essentially drown poor people's prospects in bathtubs, and instead to subsidize corporations who measure quality in terms of the next quarterly profit statement which can be improved by denying their workers wages, healthcare, and education, and refusing to pay local taxes, and etc.
5
Mr. Luettgren....you are right about liberal demands "that we continue to robustly defend the world order...." Just look at Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya etc. Even worse than our poor tax policy, lack of enforcement of the poor tax policy, and the massive allocation to the war department our elected officials are simply not responding to what the people prioritize. I assume most Americans are not happy about the grinding poverty in this country.....But they need to vote on it.
Absolutely true. We constantly blame the victims (kids). We just declare they shouldn't have been born in the first place. Kids can never help who their born to. So children are trapped in the arguments over legacy greatness vs meritocracy, and all the prejudices in between. We're a mess and it's showing in our collective youngest generations. Our schools are a disgrace---with acute neglect and sloppy management. We view education as a superfluous hand-out, seemingly telling kids, if you're parents can't afford you to have better, tough luck.
11
The Republicans WANT them to be born, and thus fight abortion rights to the teeth. Once the child is born, it ceases to be of interest.
1
Great article. There is an easy solution to America's shrinking middle class, growing poverty, stagnant wages, and skyrocketing income inequality: income tax reform. Not the kind pushed through last year that boosts the wealth of the already uber-wealthy, but one which raises the top brackets substantially and closes tax loopholes for the rich, such as estate tax and capital gains. America had a large middle class post WWII because top incomes were taxed as much ad 90%. Per Thomas Picketty, economist and author of "Capital," the only way to grow the middle class and decrease wealth inequity is through taxation. His book proves through careful study of historical trends.
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That and cut the bloated defense budget by a few percent. We don't need to spend as much as the next five countries combined, including China and Russia.
No millionaire left behind, and no child helped to thrive. The entire GOP platform, in one sentence. Seriously.
200
I would debate that it's not just the GOP platform...it seems that all political players become co-opted by money and who hands it out to them. Let's create a brand new slate of Republican and Democrat candidates to lead us who are willing to work for ideals, not dollars.
1
We are not shortchanging "children." We are shortchanging people. That includes their parents, and the people they will grow into, and the young people who were children just a few years ago.
"Children" is emotive. It is not accurate. Shortchanging in this country sweeps with a much broader broom.
36
Well of course, a child living in poverty obviously has parents who live in poverty. And yes, its wide-spread.
How many kids could be provided with early child care, health care and an education for the cost of a single F-35? How many libraries and clinics and affordable housing units could be provided to families for the cost of a single air craft carrier?
It should be obvious that children are not greatly valued in a capitalist economy, seen as liabilities rather than assets, and they have little to no power politically, depending upon adults to protect their interests.
63
@Jack Shultz, my thoughts exactly as I watch the daily take-offs of fighter squadrons from Burlington VT airport. It doesn't have to be an either or proposition though. A side by side comparison of the values that represent defense and the common good needs to be hammered home until progressive taxation is restored.
6
"How many kids could be provided with early child care, health care and an education for the cost of a single F-35? How many libraries and clinics and affordable housing units could be provided to families for the cost of a single air craft carrier?" Exactly. But it's not only children who aren't valued. The elderly, the sick, the poor, anyone who is not a profit center, is tossed aside. We--well, not we but our legislators--have a perverted, debased set of priorities. And we've stood by and accepted what they do in our name. Their votes for these military budgets wreak havoc at home and overseas. Check out the National Priorities Project.
1
Your are right. And think, too, about the cost of just one of the all too frequent trips to Mar A Lago.
1
Mr. Kristof - Odd that in this entire article the role of parents in the raising of children in dire poverty never gets raised.
Instead I read things like, "WE (emphasis added) tear apart homegrown families ..."
I'm sorry, Mr. Kristof, I don't know about you, but I'm not tearing apart any families. And if a parent chooses to commit a crime and ends up in prison, I think a large portion of the blame for tearing up that family sits squarely on the shoulders of the criminal parent.
We need to have an intelligent discussion about the root problems, identify the problems, and then move on to a discussion about possible solutions. This article, unfortunately, doesn't provide a good start. Mr. Kristof, I've seen you do better.
26
Enough of the holier-than-thou retorts. What if the root problems is zero tolerance for mistakes? You know it's only the poor who get put in jail for drug offenses, right?
2
Seeking asylum from countries devastated by US policies is not illegal. Tearing children , toddlers and babies, from the arms of their poor desperate families and taking them thousands of miles away— unidentified so that they will never see their parents again— is a crime against humanity.
Alas, I think for some, they need to see dependent "others" (like children, refugees) suffer in order to feel successful and good about themselves. They can only feel wealthy and like "winners" as long as they can see others starving and made wretched along side themselves.
19
Finally someone making sense. This faux-hand-wrining about the border children has really turned me off, because it sounds like a publicity-seeking offensive by the Democrats. (And I'm not a Republican.) Those who are looking for people who need attention, need financial help, healthcare, education, safety from violence: look no further than your closest low-income neighborhood or housing project. Same goes for all the causes we're involved in all over the world. We don't have money to police our own cities but we want to be policeman to the world, with troops and military bases all over the place. We are 'supporting democracy' to the tune of billions of dollars globally, when we don't have it here at home. (Yes we have secret ballots to vote in elections for candidates who are pre-selected and paid for by big money, who will vote on laws written by lobbyists. I don't call this democracy.)
We will have more of a global influence, and hopefully for the better, when we stop trying to run the world. That is, when we stop trying to make the world safe for corporate profits.
31
“...patently ridiculous to study poverty in America...”—Nikki Haley, Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Thank heavens some agency is looking at the concentration of poverty in America, a country that welcomed Ms. Haley’s family from India where, by the way, this op-ed reveals that the life span of poor children may not exceed 13. I suppose it all depends upon one’s priorities.
I would not want to be wearing Trump’s shoes on the Day of Wrath when he’s ordered to explain tax cuts for the uber-wealthy at the expense of nutritious food, shelter and decent clothing.
When we treat the most vulnerable and the least to blame for all that’s wrong, we reveal much about our “Christianity.”
41
Anyone who cares about the current and future state of our nation should read the U.N. Human Rights report. Politicians, journalists and educators should make every effort to communicate the findings to U.S. citizens.
The report makes it clear how policies, made possible by the capture of the government by special interests, have caused the United States to be exceptional not for being the land of opportunity but rather exceptional for being the richest nation on earth where vast numbers of citizens lack access to affordable housing, health care, and education.
The facts in the report are devastating but when it comes to a chances of a better future I found this one most troubling - the United States ranks 25th out of 29 industrialized nations in investing in early childhood education.
45
That is why immigration is so important. We can't raise our own children and we have outsourced our future population. The politicians and employers feel natives are too demanding, and lazy so we simply are outsourcing child production.
1
I agree wholeheartedly, Mr Kristof, in all but one sentence: “Why do we stiff kids?” Some of us have never done that. Some of us, for nearly 50 years, have been voting for candidates who wanted to secure and expand the safety net for children and adults. Some of us have been supporting candidates who prioritized human well-being over the military. Some of us have supported human rights at home and abroad.
Unfortunately, nearly all of one party and, I am ashamed to say, a significant number of the other party have placed the interests of business over people. They ask how much will a program cost, but never how much it will cost if we let the problem fester. These are the same people who take measures against moths eating their clothes, but will not lift a finger to prevent the fabric of the country from being eaten. The only word I have to describe this is deplorable.
105
“Now we need a similar outcry on behalf of all of America’s children.”
Yes we do, Mr. Kristoff. But we have to start with making our vote-counting process transparent and verifiable. This is a fundamental right in a democracy. A majority of Americans support progressive policies. Yet, extreme rightwing Republicans hold the largest majorities at the state and national level not seen since the 1920s.
Jonathan Simon: "[Election fraud] is really the hub at the center of all the other concerns that people have. And you see people, whether it’s save the whales or save the forests or save Social Security, whatever it is, working very hard on these issues and perhaps not recognizing that if elections continued to be rigged their work is going to be for naught.”
Harper’s Magazine: How to Rig an Election https://tinyurl.com/y9xx63f6
"Two major events have paved the way for this lethal form of election manipulation: the mass adoption of computerized voting technology, and the outsourcing of our elections to a handful of corporations that operate in the shadows with little oversight or accountability.
“This privatization of our elections has occurred without public knowledge or consent, leading to one of the most dangerous and least understood crises in the history of American democracy. We have actually lost the ability to verify election results.”
Joseph Stalin: “The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything."
47
Why would computerized election fraud be out of the realm of possibility when we have overt manipulation: voter suppression, gerrymandering, big money, and a stolen Supreme Court seat?
There used to be concern about the vulnerabilities with computerized voting, but it became taboo to talk about it.
- NYT: Computer Voting Is Open to Easy Fraud, Experts Say
- WSJ: Reversing Course on Electronic Voting
- Washington Post: [Md. Governor] Ehrlich Wants Paper Ballots for Nov. Vote
- NPR: The Approaching 2006 E-Voting 'Train Wreck’
Computer experts from top universities have proven over and over that electronic voting machines can be easily hacked without leaving a trace.
Hacking Democracy - The Hack https://tinyurl.com/y7c9oopu
The full-length Emmy nominated HBO documentary https://tinyurl.com/y7mydv7z
Victoria Collier points out in her Harper’s article (see link above) that Jimmy Carter and James Baker stated in their report for the nonpartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform that “the greatest threats to secure voting are insiders with direct access to the machines.” They wrote “There is no reason to trust insiders in the election industry any more than in other industries.’”
Republican Stephen Spoonamore, Computer Security Guru, Election Theft with Voter Machines
https://tinyurl.com/y7855vmp
"There is no voting system in the world that cannot be hacked. You cannot have secure electronic voting, it doesn't exist. Paper ballots are the only way to make voting secure."
11
I don't think the problem is rigged ballot boxes. I think it's rigged candidate choices. Candidates get money from business interests (sometimes dressed in not-for-profit disguise) to get elected, when they will vote on laws written by lobbyists. The problem is that good candidates can't get on the ballot when they are running against well--funded incumbents or people funded by special interest groups. We need to limit the role of $$$$ in our elections.
9
Farhorizons wrote “I don't think the problem is rigged ballot boxes.”
My point exactly. You can’t be sure if vote counts are accurate and legitimate. We have no way to check it because it’s been outsourced to a handful of private, rightwing companies that count our votes in secret with “proprietary software.” There's a vast amount of exit poll data which indicates that some election results are "statistically impossible," and pattern evidence such as exit poll discrepancies appearing in competitive elections but not in noncompetitive races. The German high court got it right:
German Court Rules E-Voting Unconstitutional https://tinyurl.com/za778ju
“The use of electronic voting was challenged by a father-and-son team. Political scientist Joachim Wiesner and son, physicist Ulrich Wiesner complained that push button voting was not transparent because the voter could not see what actually happened to his vote inside the computer and was required to place ‘blind faith’ in the technology. In addition, the two plaintiffs argued that the results were open to manipulation.”
Check out the links I provided above. And follow Jonathan Simon’s interviews at http://codered2014.com/. You will learn new information from each one. He is the author of "Code Red: Computerized Elections and the War on American Democracy” (2018 edition).
#DemocracyDemandsTransparentVoteCounting
7
It's a travesty that the ones that are going to grow up and be the next generation are being neglected so.
A few easy steps to alter this blight would be:
1. A truly progressive tax system that if you make more, then you should be paying more taxes > money for social programs like health care and the like
2. Reduce the defense budge but a fraction and again, put that money into social programs and the like (Single Payer)
3. A guaranteed income for all (especially up to the age of 18) This would eliminate social agencies and almost pay for all of the people that would not have to grovel to survive.
4. Expanding the school year, more money for public education, more money for teachers' salaries and more money for schools
5. Eliminate the for profit prison and judicial systems
6. Eliminate the war on drugs that supplies the above
7. A guaranteed and paid for higher education of at least 2 years
8. Mandatory 2 years of service to the state for a longer higher education (or for at least those 2 years)
9. Mandatory voting by mail and paper ballot to initiate the above.
10. You all voting for the above
Just a thought.
129
Most of these fine recommendations have been thrown, gears grinding, into reverse by this administration and its lackeys on the Court and in congress.
Every idea, institution, and policy that fights poverty is under vicious attack: welfare, progressive taxation, even our colleges and universities, while, over at the military plans are being drawn up for Space Force (echo echo echo) and, down south, of course, to Build the Wall (repeat in scary yell till hoarse).
6
You have no idea how happy I am that my husband and I decided together NOT to stay in New York City even though my career was great and I was making much more money than I ever could here in Austria. There are many things MORE important than money.
So, yes, its a travesty but those intelligent ideas listed are not going to happen. Especially in health care which is at the heart of every other vital matter. Its always, why should I pay for THEM? There's no collective thought of how can we make society as a whole better for EVERYONE?!
Yesterday was a crusher. Since The horror, The horror, of election night yesterday was so very dark, personally. You think, others think, that when you no longer live there its easier to take. WRONG! When you love something which is being destroyed--no matter where on the globe there's nowhere to run or hide. Just RESIST! VOTE!
Politics is the number 1 topic in this home. My girls have dual citizenship and they're both politically active--here and there. Both of them help Syrian refugees here--teaching their children. I have always shown them and told them, doesn't matter what you do in life. BE KIND. Help always. When you see wrongdoing step in and don't turn away.
There is so much hatred right now. Love can only grow when there's an absence of hatred. Above everything children need attention, direct care, education (in the family, too) and to be shown kindness and acts of daily love.
Then they will thrive and we will glow.
4
Tried in Venezuela ,go check it out.
1
Americans are shortsighted to the point of self-destructiveness. You do not need to be compassionate to benefit from living in a country where all children are nurtured to reach their full potential.
Even if you don't feel compassion for bridges, it is foolish to neglect them in the long run, or they won't carry you in the years ahead.
We are an unusually rich country in natural resources and still benefit from the momentum realized by being relatively progressive during much of the 20th century in providing quality public education for the majority of our children and making sure those kids were nourished in school.
But that momentum is winding down and the majority of people in many other modern nations with a fraction of our per-capita natural resources are living materially richer lives than we are.
This is because our system caters much more to billionaires than to the children.
309
@Alan
You make an excellent point that goes to the heart of the matter - it is not like it is an abstract idea - SO many other countries are doing it and doing it better.
There is no need (the billionaires as you point out) to cater to the rich, but also not to cater to the MIC. Take a fraction for those dollars and put them into social programs.
End a few wars that are so costly while you are at it.
20
One reason I never had kids. America's version of capitalism divides children from parents psychologically and emotionally by selling to one generation what isn't cool for the other. It physically divides parents from children if parents both have to work. Modern American culture, even for "privileged whites," dehumanizes and brutalizes children, some of whom act out their conditioning in brutal ways. Just look at the current one who grew up to be president.
1
It's not only our children who are short-changed. It's our elderly, our sick, our working poor, our functional orphans who have parents who don't know how to nurture them.
3
Who was responsible for a 13 year old living in "a filthy flophouse for drug users"? Didn't his parents have something to do with it?
How does that become my, or a public, responsibility? Does Mr. Kristof want the government to take him away from his parents? He (Kristof) objects, rightly, to separating illegal immigrant children from their parents at the border.
We have a large population of adults who don't care for their children. What can be done about that without putting their children in orphanages? Other countries don't have this, which is why our national child health statistics are so bad in comparison.
37
@Jonathan
No, you are correct, other countries do not have the problem of child health statistics being anywhere near as bad. That is because of the social spending and priorities of those countries which is completely geared to the well being of family.
Take a simple thing like paid family leave ( I have been on 3 times now and know what I am talking about) It is just the physicality of being with your child and bonding with them. It is a chain reaction effect that starts at birth and carries right through to adulthood and beyond.
It is also a simple (and vastly better way as a cost point of view) than to spend oodles on foster care homes, back end health care, social services, prisons and other costs, etc.
If it was proven that if you paid $1 now in taxes instead of say $4, 18 years from now, would you not want to spend the lesser amount ? Well it is proven in every other country than the U.S. but it is a matter of priorities and essentially moral conviction to treat the less well off of society equally.
Your choice.
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Why do other countries not have "this?" Perhaps the ideology of personal responsibility is behind the difference. If we pursue policies that say people must suffer if they don't step up and solve their own problems, and, then, people are unable or unwilling to do that, what happens?
I acknowledge that we need some sense of personal responsibility, but it has become the driving force for some very ugly outcomes. There are programs that have proven to work in many cases. They cost money and it's hard for businesses to make large profits from them. They do not involve taking children, but focus on helping the families.
Robert Kennedy created a stir when he traveled through Appalachia and found people suffering in terrible poverty. The nation responded and conditions improved.
Too bad the US response to the UN report on poverty is denial.
10
I'd like to be a foster parent someday. I have even downloaded the requirements of my states for the house renovations one needs. I'd have to spend some money on my house and wait for retirement, I think.
I'm the lone voice in the universe who thinks it's okay for kids to be away from their mom for a little while she gets her life and health in order. As a nation, we should make sure that our foster care system and group system is quality, and those of you who care can become foster parents.
Another idea is to turn public schools into temporary boarding schools for when A. Mom needs to be away because of work B. Mom needs to be away because of temporary illness (chemotherapy?) or C. Mom is battling demons (drugs, mental health.) This way, there is no stigma, and the child is in a familiar place with friends.
This could also provide all kinds of government jobs, as we go into the age of robots and we need them.
When Mom is battling demons, the best place for the kids is somewhere else.
There's a new paradigm emerging in the past month that kids can't ever be apart from mom. In this age of single motherhood, do we really want to push that? I know it's done with the best of intention, but it will be seized upon by people who want to hurt women.
6
When President Johnson started his war on poverty, I was well on my way to a middle class life because I had benefited from "Aid to Dependent Children," the Social Security benefits for those children of deceased parents.
When Medicaid/Medicare was started, my class was the first to start our jobs and indeed our new life with insurance deductions for those programs; it gave me a sense of purpose that I was also working to help poor and had an insurance for my future as well.
Something terrible happened as waste, fraud, abuse and neglect drained Medicaid/Medicare programs of the funds required to sustain those programs; Congress failed the American people with poor oversight and control.
We needed a vigilant Democratic Party to counter the greed and neglect of those programs, yet what I have witnessed during the last forty years is a Democratic Party in meltdown.
Democrats neglected those little poor kids who primarily reside in cities; we never thought Republicans would be interested in helping poor kids.
Yet, while those very Democratic leaders know what poverty looks like in their cities, they themselves reside not in the communities they represent, I am thinking of you Eliot Engel, they live in either another state or a very distant upper income area far removed from their constituency.
While viewing those Congresspeople ranting at the southern border for illegal immigrants; I vowed to vote for anyone except Democrats, until change happens.
28
I'm with you, re not voting for Democrats for the reasons you cited. They are no longer the party of the working class and the poor. They along with the Republican are The Elected. They feel entitled beyond reason and justice. They know how to play the system to take their of themselves and their own, while the rest of us get by. I only hope that Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez really is a new breed of elected representative, one that puts the common good before her own.
Not sure where you are getting you're facts, because fraud is extremely small in these programs, and almost always carried out by greedy doctors and insurance companies.
www.publicintegrity.org/2017/07/19/21011/fraud-and-billing-mistakes-cost...
1
JRS, while the Democratic party is no prize, we have a situation in which the Republican party has fallen into utter moral decline and are sycophants to an ineffective president who will do nothing to help poor children and their families. His campaign promises were all a ruse to appeal to the emotions of the working class. But on close examination, what has he done for them?
I don't belong to either party because I like to keep my options open. You, of course, must do as your conscience dictates. But consider that the vows you made when younger may not apply to your older sensibility. I believe the Democratic party has been chastened and younger people are running for office now. They seem much more in touch in with their constituents. This would be good news for children in the long run.
Being poor as a kid sucks. I grew up in a single mom household with a father who refused to pay for child support. I got a paper route at 11 to help my mom with the bills. I wore hand me downs and relied on the Lions club for new glasses. I worked in the cafeteria at lunch so that I could have a hot meal for free. Seconds were a luxury I only enjoyed at a friend's house or my grandparents house. I was 21 before I saw a dentist who had to rebuild my teeth.
Did it build character. Sure, but I often wonder if I might have gone to college if I hadn't spent my childhood trying to survive. Life would have been easier if my school had provided free lunch so I didn't have to miss class to earn a meal. I probably would have gotten better grades if I was doing homework instead of holding down a full-time job at McDonald's during highschool. Having health insurance so I could get medical care when I was sick probably would have helped me not miss as much class because I just had to wait it out.
We are one of the richest nation's in the world. There's no reason why we can't have universal daycare, universal healthcare, free lunch for all students, job training programs for the non college bound, work study programs so kids can graduate college debt free, and other social security programs that make upward mobility possible. It takes a village to raise a kid but not everyone has the same access. FDR showed that government can be an equalizer for those at the bottom.
250
I, too, grew up like Ami in Portland, OR. Our home life was defined by alcoholism and unpaid utility bills. In 1968, we’d lived so long in the dark (3 months) that Mother followed Dad to a “better life in Dallas.”
Like Ami, it did make us stronger. Resilient. Yet two out of us four kids decided early to be childless. Children were a luxury that we’d not be able to afford. This decision was something that my sister and I never regretted.
I do not believe in Socialism. That said, callous as it may seem, I do not want to raise other people’s offspring. Period.
6
If America had universal health insurance, day care, and a proper parental leave, there will be less need for lawyers. The living lawyers are smart not to put themselves out of business.
You may not have gone to college, but you are very smart. However, it is never too late to get more education if you want to. Many colleges and universities welcome older students.
"Early childhood programs in particular make a huge difference: parent coaching, high-quality prekindergarten, lead poisoning interventions, social worker visits, and mentoring."
These are all government programs. None of these would be necessary if parents had any concept of raising a healthy child.
Start there.
34
If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.
Not an exact analogy, but pretty close.
If only those "others" would live up to their responsibilities, we wouldn't need the stinkin' government to help. That attitude arises in the belief that people must suffer if they don't step up to fix what's wrong with them.
A lot of things get in the way of parents being able to raise a healthy child. Some are the result of bad choices people make. The opioid crisis is just example of that kind of bad choice, but how do you force people to make good choices?
Forcing people to be "free" was the fatal flaw of Communism as it was implemented in the USSR. This idea that we should punish people who don't live up to our expectations in the USA has had similar disastrous consequences.
The government ought to represent us and help people who need it. That does not mean there is no place for private charity, but the general good demands more.
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Yes, 'start there' - helping parents. Few of us parents have much experience being parents before that first child. We're better by the second child. Then we're acceptable by the third, if we get that far. Some people are naturally gifted parents; most of us muddle through, having no 'concept' at first. So, yes, help us.
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In the list you are calling out, there is parent coaching and mentoring. Wouldn't those be strategies to help parents who don't understand what they are supposed to be doing, as you are proposing? So, society is starting there with these programs.
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This is one of the only recent articles I’ve seen that addresses the fuller picture of child welfare policies in the US. As we as a nation debate the cruelty of separating children and parents at the border, it is important to see this policy in context of how and why children and parents are separated domestically. Enforced, legal separation in the form of foster care system happens every day, often for compelling reasons, such as parents who, because of mental illness and/or addiction, can’t care for their children. It happens disproportionately for mothers (not fathers), families of color, and families that are poor. As a social worker working daily with families affected by the child welfare system, I often wonder how outcomes would be better if we invested resources into families and parents who need assistance to parents. I’m no Pollyanna—children can never stay in situations where there is serious and long-standing abuse or neglect— but there is so much more that we as a society can do to support families rather than punitively removing children from the care of their parents. Attachment is a human right.
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In the USA the children, born to working mothers, are separated from mothers in infancy because their mothers have to go back to work after a month or so. These infants are not separated completely, but for 9 working hours. Still they are separated from their mothers at a crucial time of their development. Why is this happening? Mothers staying with their children will most likely contribute to raising happy children. Happy children naturally become quite content adults , who will not buy stuff to make them happy.
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The article doesn't mention one of the enduring underpinnings of American social thought, unfortunately shared too widely across this land and baked into our approach to social policy -- that poor people (and so, their children) are poor first and foremost because they made bad life choices and that society/government/the rest of us should not be asked to bail them out at our expense. If I can afford to live in a good neighbourhood, buy quality health care, and provide for my family, it's because I worked hard and made good choices. And surely not because I am white, middle class, born to the right family, lived in the right part of town, was able to get into to the right schools, was able to join the right clubs, came from a stable family unit, etc. I mean, they could live in a gated community too if they just had my work ethic. Am I right, or just blind to structural realities about our society that seem pretty obvious to the rest of the world?
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SGoodwin, you are absolutely right!
It is a well-known bias in social psychology that one attributes their own success to their efforts and their failures to circumstances outside themselves but do the opposite when looking at others.
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Then God forbid you ever suffer any kind of misfortune, like a car accident that leaves you disabled and unable to work, or your spouse suffers from a midlife crisis and leaves you flat, or your job moves overseas and you are unable to find another one with comparable pay, or a flood, fire or tornado destroys your house and you just don't have the resources to rebuild and replace everything, or some cunning bad guy absconds with your entire life savings. You've made all the right choices, but sometimes stuff happens over which you have no control. That happens to other perfectly nice people, too.
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It also helps if you are smarter than average and better looking!
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I hear a lot of people say, "we're better than this." No, we're not. If we were, we wouldn't have the problems we have. We allow our government to make sure the rich get richer at the expense of everyone else. In the meantime, millions of people are homeless, millions of people don't get enough to eat and millions die because of a lack of access to adequate medical care. It's a crying shame that our children are pawns in this hypocritical and uncaring country. The damage we do to children is unconscionable. It is really evident here in the Deep South. Half the people I meet are functional illiterates who are the products of a childhood of poor nutrition, poor education and the corruption of the people in charge whose mission in life is to keep people poor and ignorant. I used to be an optimist, but I have given up thinking that this country will get any better. We take another step backwards every day.
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Because, like you say, children don't vote, and, even more importantly for our present government....they certainly are the worst donors. When numerous Congressmen tell us their vote for the tax bill that was for rich and corporate tax cuts with temporary token cents for most of the middle class and below....was so their donors would continue to donate...says it all.
The GOP now no longer hides their true constituency: their candidates and their donors. (That bit about being the party of family values? Only for the 9 month in utero and, frankly, because they enjoy the punitive aspect anyway.)
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The Gop true constituency is their mega donors---this is made to seem part of our free speech democracy by our own Supreme Court. When will Kristof and other Times columnists stop leaving out this huge factor and start linking cause and effect?
The Dems have to compete with our dominant party for big money to run for office.
Other rich democracies with less % of citizens in poverty and with health care for all don't depend on the rich to pay for their elections. This huge difference is ignored in our media, even as they lament our problems.
Children are hardly pawns in this game. They're not even on the board. The trend continues to be if you're poor, you'll pay everything you've got and then you should die so that you are not a burden to the middle class. If you slip out of the middle class into poverty from illness or job loss the best you should expect is the heel of a boot. If you're rich? No worries congress and the administration will take care of you to make sure none of your hard earned dollars go to the undeserving. I mean if these people were any good they wouldn't be poor! Just turn on the TV and tune to any evangelical channel spouting the gospel of wealth! Even Jesus doesn't like poor people apparently.
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i just gave in and let em draft me in 1965. with me gone it was much easier fer my single mom to make her small pay check house and feed us.
little wonder i was put into infantry because i had not finished HS.
I was wounded enough in Nam for the govt to send me a check and I enrolled in college and finished a 4 yr degree which got me a job with the VA. I quit after 4 yrs cause i could not take the lies
I guess i am a success story. my benefits were earned from my fathers POW service in WWll. he died too early.
what is the meaning for me to write this, because everyone else in my platoon came from my same poor back ground, skinny, bad teeth, no educ, just poor and in need of 3 hots and a cot.
I wont go to VA for health work, they nice enough but that´s only last 10 yrs cause they got trapped by the press.
America is struggling. I do not like folks that allow children to go to bed hungry. in a supposedly great nation, its just sad that as a people we no not demand better for poor children, any child. but i guess charity starts at home. i once believed in American greatness but lost that in the hospitals with youths with half their faces blown away. they were just poor kids caught up in a system that considered them expendable over some made up danger about dominoes and asian kids willing to die for freedom in what was Americas war in Vietnam. our real war is right here.
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