Our kids

When my daughter asked me to tell her what this book was about she commented - why do you always read such depressing books? Indeed.

Public policy professor, Robert Putnam, describes the disturbing trends in outcomes for children over the past 50 years. My husband was born in the '70s to a high school educated couple. He was raised by two parents in a small town. Each parent held a blue color job with both struggling occasionally with unemployment. Ryan went on to college (which he paid for ) and now has a good job which supports a family.

After reading this book, I realized Ryan was among the last generation of kids born to high school educated parents who had a statistically good chance to graduate from college and find well-paying work. Those times are now over. Children born in that cohort are far more likely to experience all the consequences of poverty: chaos at home, unstable living situation, poor schools.  While kids in this cohort are not more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, they are far more likely to endure the consequences of their decisions. Parents (like my parents, like me -- college educated, gainfully employed) offer a safety net that allows their kids to survive bad decisions.

I am currently reading Michelle Obama's book Becoming. Her parents fit the same profile as Ryan's except her mother did not work until she was 14. Michelle and her brother went to good schools and lived in a safe neighborhood in the South side of Chicago. They became adults just as their schools and neighborhoods declined in the way Putnam describes. It is remarkable to think that if Michelle Obama had been born 20 years later, we might not know who she is.

Very sad to think about all the innate potential that kids in this situation are born with which will never be realized due to poor policy decisions. Most importantly, wages have not increased over the past 30 years. College costs have risen faster than health care costs as people who can pay any price for the needed degree, and everyone else is left out.

Most remarkable to me are the trends I recognize among my peers, namely that raising children is now a zero sum game. Their children must get ahead at any cost but what happens to other children is not their concern.  Our elementary school raises hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to benefit already wealthy children who have every advantage. Meanwhile, 1 mile away is a school with homeless children and few resources. We ignore those kids at our peril.

After living in Honduras, I have been witness to how terrible it is living in two-tiered society. Besides the misery of the homeless and drug addicted in the streets, our public places essentially won't exist without a militarized police force and/or private security. An uneducated public is apathetic about democracy and authoritarians are chosen to oppress the outsiders.

What is the answer? That we start to give a shit about all children and invest at least a little time in one's community. Beyond that, taxing the rich, reducing income inequality and demanding a living wage as a minimum wage would be a good start. The status quo is not working.

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