Americans’ Lack of Care for their Own Children

 

Whether the deprioritization of the welfare of our children comes from $1.5 trillion in college student debt unparalleled in American history (we prefer tax cuts for the mega-wealthy), cherishing a right to own assault rifles over keeping our schools and little children safe from serial killers or simply not providing a healthcare/social support system to keep our kids on pace with the average health and well-being of the rest of the developed world, the United States seems decidedly hostile to its own children. The photograph above of an ad hoc memorial is simply a reminder of the December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Massacre (Newtown, CT) in which a well-armed Adam Lanza walked into the school killing 26 people before taking his own life. Lanza murdered six adults and 20 children no older than seven. He used his mother’s Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and ten magazines with 30 rounds each.

In amplification of the above evidence of our distain for the young, today’s blog focuses on the ranking metrics illustrating our nation’s failed healthcare and support system, including the Trump administration’s expert sabotage of the Affordable Care Act. Paid maternity leave, support for early education and day-care are standards that simply are not part of our legally-required social fabric, although these are basic components of most of the rest of the developed world. 

Pediatrician and child advocate, David Alexander, writing for the January 30^th Los Angeles Times, explains: “Though it is the most powerful country in the world, the United States ranks 36th in Save the Children’s latest End of Childhood index measuring the best and worst places to be a child. Eight European countries are in the top 10… Similarly, in UNICEF’s latest report card on child well-being, the U.S. ranks 37th out of 41. Nine of the top 10 countries are in Europe…

“First, there is a healthy respect for children’s rights underlying all policies concerning children. Second, there are government structures in place to ensure that children’s rights are upheld. Finally, there is a safety net of basic universal benefits to support children and their families.

“The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, passed in 1989, sets standards for education, healthcare, social services and other policies that affect children. Although officials from the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations helped write the child rights treaty, the U.S. is the only U.N. member state that hasn’t ratified it. Opponents cite the administrative burden of complying with the convention, as well as concerns that it could interfere with the parent-child relationship.

“In Europe, by contrast, the convention is regarded not as a burden, but rather a helpful framework for keeping the needs of children front and center in all policy matters.” 

In most of the rest of the developed world, there are checks and balances, safety nets, government monitoring as well as carefully-reinforced access to the childcare, educational values and healthcare that simply do not exist in the United States (or which have deteriorated significantly). Our schools continue to slip on global standards as austerity measures that slashed public school budgets in the Great Recession have not been corrected. We instead seem to favor providing more money to the richest in the land in the consistently failed pursuit of trickle-down economics.

While many other nations require an examination of the potential impact of any proposed legislation on children, that consideration is almost always absent in U.S. law-making. Is that changing here? California’s recently-elected governor, Gavin Newsom, is proposing a series of new budgetary allocations aimed at correcting the malaise in the rest of the nation over our own children. Paid maternity leave. Early education. Childcare. Healthcare. 

For incumbent politicians who have side-stepped concerns about younger citizens for decades, they probably should be aware that millennials are now voters as well as a growing number from the younger Z generation. They are overwhelmingly opposed to the old-world policies of Donald Trump specifically and increasingly of the entire Republican Party. They are victims of our malaise. They remember. And they are angry.

              I’m Peter Dekom, and let the fat-cats beware; the tide is turning much faster than they can imagine.