Family holds a central place in our political rhetoric. Family gathered at home around the hearth or at the dinner table is a trope that is featured in movies, music and writing. Politicians talk about supporting families. Companies speak of family-friendly personnel policies and work environments.
The reality of how families are treated in America is quite different. Broadly speaking, we provide less support to families than other developed countries. These failings of support come in many domains: minimum livable income, housing, healthcare, education, transportation, child care, parental leave for newborns, and more. The wealthy and rich are able to buy all the support they need. In fact, they are the subject of much favoritism in tax and social policies.
Posts about Family in America
A reader of my recent post, “Bernie Sanders got much right about our current situation….” commented: “Thank you Mark for validating what we know to be true with real data. Now what do we do about it?” My perspective on our situation has shifted because I have come to recognize that American life has been transformed over the past 50 years. The Trump era, following 2016, marks the culmination of a long campaign by the —>> read more –>>
Footnotes
- This quote is attributed to Indigenous Cherokee elder Stan Rushworth. The quote became popular on social media in various forms, most recently in September 2020.
- An underlying theme here is that anonymity is inimical of a healthy, egalitarian society.
- See the call to end anonymity in public life below
- Company stock buybacks were illegal price manipulation until the regulations were changed in 1982 under President Reagan.
- See the MIT Living Wage Calculator for example data on living wages for various family sizes and locations.
- Attention must be paid not to exceed the capacity of any sector of the economy because that would provoke inflation.
- See my "Video Post – It’s time to admit that US health system is 3rd rate, or worse" for more about the performance of our healhtcare system.
- See Smil, Vaclav. How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future. UK: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2022.
From a recent email from Bernie Sanders with this byline: “Yes. In the wealthiest country on earth let us Make America Healthy Again.”, I extracted these headline proposals. Medicare for All. Lower the cost of prescription drugs. Paid Family and Medical Leave. Reform the food industry. Raise the minimum wage to a living wage. Lower the work week to 32 hours with no loss of pay. Combat the epidemic of loneliness, isolation and mental illness. —>> read more –>>
Footnotes
- This quote is attributed to indigenous Cherokee elder, Stan Rushworth The quote became popularized on social media in various forms, most recently in Sep 2020.
- Attention must be paid not to exceed the capacity of any sector of the economy because that would provoke inflation.
- See Smil, Vaclav. How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future. UK: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2022.
With yet another school shooting yesterday 9.3.2024 in Georgia I found myself barely moved. The frequency of these events and the now ritualized sequelae have extinguished any other reaction. Here is a chart I came on today in The Conversation. It is shocking, even to me, that we have taken as the normal for the last twenty five years to have averaged 58 shootings per year!!
(reposted from https://theconversation.com/us) Denmark’s King Frederik X wipes away a tear as he waves to a crowd of 300,000 people. Martin Meissner/AP Photo Marie Helweg-Larsen, Dickinson College When a leader cries in public, is it a sign of weakness? On Jan. 14, 2023, Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik was crowned King Frederik X after his mother, Queen Margrethe II, announced she would be abdicating the throne during her annual New Year’s Eve speech. After the queen —>> read more –>>
Original posting – 3.6.2023 Matthew Desmond, author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City10, has a new book Poverty, by America set to be released shortly. He has written a piece for the NYTimes, “Why Poverty Persists in America”11 that is worth a read. He poses this question early on, “Why, then, when it comes to poverty reduction, have we had 50 years of nothing?” He cites a ton of statistics to prove —>> read more –>>
Footnotes
- Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City (Penguin Books, 2016)
- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/magazine/poverty-by-america-matthew-desmond.html
- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/24/opinion/income-inequality-upper-middle-class.html
- There is variation amongst the analyses of whther the upper class is the top 20% or 10% of the population. In anyt event it is clear that the vast bulk of the population is in the loser column.
Here are two more angers: (an addendum to the 1.1.2023 post: My Year End Siege of Angers – the list) Guns: “Eighteen percent of U.S. households purchased a gun since the start of the pandemic (March 2020–March 2022), according to new survey data from NORC at the University of Chicago, increasing the percentage of U.S. adults living in a household with a gun to 46%. Over this period, one in 20 adults in America (5%) purchased —>> read more –>>
Footnotes
- https://www.norc.org/NewsEventsPublications/PressReleases/Pages/one-in-five-american-households-purchased-a-gun-during-the-pandemic.aspx
- https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2789269
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/06/us-police-killings-record-number-2022
- Peter Temin, The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy, 2017.
Tightrope provides a well-written description of the American crisis through personal stories and hard data. Unfortunately it falls flat in its call for action.
The decline of the US has become so marked over the last few decades that the stories and numbers no longer shock. From a country with an enormous middle class we have become a country with rich, super-rich and big corporations at the top while the vast majority, more than 80%, are either homeless, very poor, poor, or a paycheck or two from poor. If you want an introduction to the state of our society, —>> read more –>>
Essay explores the grim reality of life in one small corner of America within the broader landscape of the bottom 90%.
Eviction from home is a regular feature of life for the poor and working class, more so for black and brown people. The civil justice system works with the same imbalance of power as the criminal system. Based on the book Evicted by Matthew Desmond.
At a time when the Republicans are transferring income and wealth to the rich and corporations over 40 million Americans fall below the official poverty line.
Nearly 9 Million children are loosing their health insurance as states run out of funds. The Congress, controlled by the vicious Republican Party that is more focused on getting a sexual predator elected in Alabama than worrying about mere children, has not appropriated any new funds.
The US has the worst maternal mortality rate by far of any developed country in the world.
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