One Of America's Greatest Shames

I have posted about this topic before, but I was reminded of it by a story on another blog (Under The Mountain Bunker), and since I consider the number of children who are forced to live and grow up under poverty conditions to be one of this country's greatest shames, it is well worth revisiting. The above chart, from the International Business Times, shows the percentage of children who live in poverty in the 35 developed nations.

There are 15 nations that have managed to keep their child poverty rate under 10% -- Iceland (4.7%), Finland (5.3%), Cyprus (6.1%), the Netherlands (6.1%), Norway (6.1%), Slovenia (6.3%), Denmark (6.5%), Sweden (7.3%), Austria (7.3%), Czech Republic (7.4%), Switzerland (8.1%), Ireland (8.4%), Germany (8.5%), France (8.8%), and Malta (8.9%). While it is unacceptable for any child to have to live in poverty, at least these nations show that they are actively trying very hard to eliminate the problem.

There are another 18 nations who have a child poverty rate between 10% and 19%. That is too much, but pales in comparison to the two only countries on this list with a child poverty rate of more than 20% -- the United States (23.1%) and Romania (25.5%).

The poverty rate is defined here as living in a family with an income of less than half of the country's median income. For example, in the United States that would be a family of four trying to live on less than $22,050 a year (or $1837 a month). Th report was put out by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The really crazy part of this is that a country with a high rate of children's poverty is just inviting future problems (which are probably going to be much more expensive than just dealing with the problem). That's because children living in poverty have a greater chance of having "cognitive and behavior problems, are less likely to complete a high school education, and statistically will experience more years of unemployment as an adult". The behavior problems and lack of education also make it more likely they will have criminal justice problems.

We must make a greater effort to solve this problem in the United States. It is ridiculous that the richest country in the world would be competing with Romania to see who can have the highest percentage of children living in poverty. Sadly, most politicians don't even want to talk about the poor, let alone do something about them. They'd rather talk about new tax cuts, cutting social programs and money for education, or spending more money on an already-bloated military budget. Those things won't solve the problem -- just make it worse.

Do you think a childhood poverty rate of 23.1% is acceptable? If not, then it is time to put some pressure on the politicians of all political parties. We can start by demanding an increase in social programs designed to help poor children (like school & summer lunch programs), adequately fund education, raise the minimum wage to a decent level, make sure job training and child care is available for parents, create new programs to create jobs, strengthen unions, make sure affordable housing is available and provided, etc.

I know there are those, especially right-wingers, who say we cannot afford to do those things. I disagree. We cannot afford not to do them. We can pay for them by putting people back to work, increasing taxes on those who can afford it, and significantly (or even drastically) cutting our military budget. It is time to stop pandering to the rich and the corporations, fix our broken economy, and help hurting Americans -- especially the children. They are, after all, our future.