New Agenda for America: Is it good for the children?
Thursday, 10/29/2009 - 11:14 am by Bill Black | 2 Comments
To mark the 80th Anniversary of the Great Crash of ‘29, we asked 15 progressive thinkers to write about lessons learned and what lies ahead. Together, their reflections constitute a New Agenda for America — a message of how the ideals of a fair society should apply to the economic and social policies of our time.
Our economy is addicted to waste. It wastes human beings. It leaves them unemployed and often impoverished - and it leaves their children in poverty. Of all the things we have come to accept in America, childhood poverty is the most appalling. We can end most childhood poverty whenever we decide that we are no longer willing to accept it. Poverty used to be common among elderly Americans. Social Security largely ended that disgrace.
We need to take care of parents and grandparents in order to help them take care of children. We must reach out to explain to as many mothers as possible why prenatal care and healthy pregnancies lead to healthy kids, and we must provide that care. We need a foster care system funded well enough to make scandals rare. and we need an adoption system that works for as many kids as possible.
Ultimately, we can’t protect kids unless we protect their parents. That brings us back to where we started — ending the waste of leaving people that want to work unemployed. The government needs to serve as the employer of last resort and the educator of first resort. Kids left in poverty do not get the education they need. Middle class children and their parents must choose between graduating with crushing debts or giving up their educational dreams. The GI Bill transformed America, making college a realistic for millions of veterans. We need a Student Bill for all our children.
Roosevelt Institute Braintruster William K. Black is an Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is a white-collar criminologist and was a senior financial regulator. He is the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One.
I think it was in his documentary Bowling for Columbine where Michael Moore exposed the idiocy behind the idea of Welfare to Work programs, forcing poor parents to spend the entire day away from their children so they can work for minimum wage.
Was it California that recently floated the novel, yet amazingly simple and common sense idea that instead they just pay poor parents to stay at home and educate, care for, and raise their children? And then one of the radio hosts I monitor savaged that idea…it was beyond disgusting.
Posted by Zach P | October 29th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
What would Social Security for children look like? In the UK, they have provided “baby bonds,” funded by the government, for every child born. It’s a starter savings account, that can be added to tax free, and taken out at the age of 18 for college tuition, or whatever is most needed to get ahead. A similar program has been proposed in the US (the ASPIRE Act of 2009). A $500 government investment in all of our children would bring everyone into the mainstream financail system, teach children to save, provide additional government matches for low-income children, and grow the account through the magic of compound interest. We could put a silver spoon in every child’s mouth. Families need not just income, they need assets such as this to ensure that the next generation has the opportunity to get ahead.
Posted by Meizhu Lui | October 29th, 2009 at 4:49 pm