Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Child Poverty Is Commonplace In The U.S.

This chart from UNICEF should shame every single American. We live in the richest nation in the world, and yet have nearly the highest child poverty rate (23.1%) of any developed nation. That means nearly one out of every four children in this country is living in poverty. Only Romania has a higher child poverty rate (23.6%), and it is just barely higher. Compare that to the nations of northern Europe, all of whom have a rate under 8%.

Right-wingers like to call those northern European nations "socialist" countries -- like that is something bad. But while those nations have some socialist elements in their economy (along with some capitalist elements), what they do not have is a high rate of child poverty. That's because the income and wealth of those countries is more evenly distributed -- and they have a good social safety net to give the poor and disadvantaged a hand up.

In the United States, we have a poor social safety net. It barely provides for a subsistence level of living -- and even then, not for all who need it. And we have the biggest gap between the rich and the rest of our people of any nation in the developed world (and actually worse than some third-world countries). And many in our government (the Republicans and blue dog Democrats) want to cut the social safety net further, to pay for new and bigger tax cuts for the rich (the same people who are hoarding most of this nation's wealth).

What we need in the U.S. is to re-establish some economic justice. Since the imposition of "trickle-down" economics by Republicans in the 1980s (and enhanced by Bush after 2000), economic justice has slowly disappeared (along with a good chunk of the middle class). If we don't kick the remaining Republicans out of power and change this failed economic policy, we'll soon be left with a country composed only of the rich and poor -- and that outrageous child poverty rate of 23.1% will look like the good old days (as it climbs much higher).

7 comments:

  1. So UNICEF should be spending/sending their money here, rather then "China"/Africa?

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  2. The United States, as the richest nation in the world, should be taking care of its own children.

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  3. But that would make the Free Market Fairy cry, Ted. Why do you hate the Free Market Fairy?

    - Badtux the Snarky Penguin

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  4. You've found me out, Badtux. I don't doubt the existence of the Free Market Fairy -- I just don't like the ugly little sucker. I've always been bigoted against fairies of any kind (and trolls, too).

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  5. Well, you *should* doubt the existence of the Free Market Fairy, Ted. Because the Free Market Fairy is as imaginary as this "free market" that the Libertarian zealots are always talking about. As anarchists are quick to remind people, there is no such thing as a "free market", because of the problem of power -- some entities have more market power than others, and so those entities invariably use that power to end any "free" in markets. Unless there's some other entity -- oh, let's call it "government" -- to do something about that problem, that is.

    - Badtux the Imaginary Fairy Bursting Penguin

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  6. No Free Market Fairy? I'm Crushed. Next, you'll probably try to tell me that Republican Jesus didn't say in the Bible that everyone (including children) should own as many guns as possible. ;-)

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  7. You know, if you take care of hungry children, you are enabling lazy free-loading parents to turn the responsibility of their kids over the the gubmint. (Another thing that every Fox news watcher knows.)

    On a serious note, I was in some "Iron Curtain" countries as a very young woman. One thing that stood out was how well the kids were treated. The food in general was sucky, but the kids were happy and healthy. When we got to Vienna, we ate our hearts out on luscious pastries and meats. And saw kids begging for food on the streets for the first time.

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