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 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 new borns 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
Tightrope – Americans reaching for hope by Kristof and WuDunn – book review
May 1, 2020Tightrope provides a well-written description of the American crisis through personal stories and hard data. Unfortunately it falls flat in its call for action.
Recently Noted – “Across America, working-class people are dying of despair”
Essay explores the grim reality of life in one small corner of America within the broader landscape of the bottom 90%.
Evicted – the book and the exhibition
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.
Recently Noted – A journey through a land of extreme poverty: welcome to America by Ed Pilkington
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.
Vicious Republicans Attack Children’s Health Insurance Program
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.
Recently Noted – maternal mortality in America
The US has the worst maternal mortality rate by far of any developed country in the world.