A comprehensive assessment of the lives
and well-being of children and adolescents
in the economically advanced nations
Click on the image for the enlarged view.
I'm not especially fond of perusing charts, graphs, or statistics, but I found the report easy to understand.
Yes, it is shameful. We as old farts have no right to expect our children and grandchildren to foot our Social Security and Medicare bills if we don't pony up and pay the taxes it takes for them to have a good education and decent health care. One reason that college has become more expensive is that we have basically privatized our state colleges by not providing state support and relying more and more on tuition. In my state what used to be 75% tax support is now about 25%. Single payer health care would also make more health care available to all and save about %450 Billion a year nationally. We are getting exactly what we refuse to pay for. Penny wise pound foolish. Vashti Winterburg
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, we obsess over youth and childhood. On the other, we really hate children.
ReplyDeleteVashti, welcome. I agree with all you say. Louisiana has cut the budgets of all public colleges and universities, with the result that programs are eliminated and tuition and fees rise to make up the difference.
ReplyDeleteAnd we could surely save money with a single payer health care system, and our children would be far healthier. Our infant mortality rate is pathetic; we are no. 24.
Counterlight, although a good many in the US seem to obsess over their own children, there does not seem to be a great deal of concern about the common good of ALL children. That's when we show our true colors
I see the UK has managed to come last. At least you're ahead of us.
ReplyDeleteI guess we've got the riots to prove it.
ReplyDeleteCathy, I don't really understand it, though. Compared to the US we have a huge safety net.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it that makes our family and peer relationships so terrible? I believe most of the rest follows from that (apart from material wellbeing).
It comes back to this magistrate saying that of all the underage children that came before her after the riots, only 1 had his parents with him.
What's that about?
Erika, I hope the folks from England noted that I didn't gloat about England being in last place. I don't understand the results either, but both countries have a long way to go to demonstrate that they really do care about ALL children.
ReplyDeletePlus the US has more safety nets than most people actually know about. Still, our picture is dismal.
Erika, I'm not sure the safety net seems to work so well, but since I don't have children and have no personal experience whatsoever of how the safety net works from which I could form an opinion, I don't feel qualified to say why.
ReplyDelete