Our Kids- The American Dream In Crisis

[vt]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/book-rev...nam-1426114527

"Mr. Putnam reports that, by the time they start kindergarten, children from professional families hear 19 million more words than children from working-class families."

"We know from the government’s record over the past 50 years that programs can do more harm than the good they intend. More important: No social services designed in Washington will substitute for homes with two devoted parents and communities replete with PTO moms and soccer dads. At the very least, we need a public conversation about the importance of marriage and parenting, one that is conducted in such a way that it will have as much purchase in Bethlehem, Pa., as in Bethesda, Md. Otherwise we can expect to continue living in a world in which “our kids” do just fine and “their kids” do not."


http://www.amazon.com/Our-Kids-Ameri...ream+in+crisis

[lakedaemonian]

Re: Our Kids- The American Dream In Crisis

No amount of money or effort by government can replace two consistent, engaged, and effective parents.

Money can enhance good parenting, but it's a poor substitute.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Our Kids- The American Dream In Crisis

http://www.wsj.com/articles/book-rev...nam-1426114527

"Mr. Putnam reports that, by the time they start kindergarten, children from professional families hear 19 million more words than children from working-class families."

"We know from the government’s record over the past 50 years that programs can do more harm than the good they intend. More important: No social services designed in Washington will substitute for homes with two devoted parents and communities replete with PTO moms and soccer dads. At the very least, we need a public conversation about the importance of marriage and parenting, one that is conducted in such a way that it will have as much purchase in Bethlehem, Pa., as in Bethesda, Md. Otherwise we can expect to continue living in a world in which “our kids” do just fine and “their kids” do not."


http://www.amazon.com/Our-Kids-Ameri...ream+in+crisis

Putnam. Probably not a bad book. Of course, 30 years ago Nixon talked like this and had old Danny "Boy St." Patrick Moynihan run around selling Milton Friedman's NIT as the cure. Not sure taking money away from the bottom and giving more to the top would have been helpful. "Flat welfare" makes about as much sense to me as "flat taxes." The Rockefellers don't need a check. But at least there were ideas on how to solve perceived problems back then. There are only 3 ideas left now: Extend existing stuff, slash existing stuff, and always obstruct.

[shiny!]

Re: Our Kids- The American Dream In Crisis

Putnam. Probably not a bad book. Of course, 30 years ago Nixon talked like this and had old Danny "Boy St." Patrick Moynihan run around selling Milton Friedman's NIT as the cure. Not sure taking money away from the bottom and giving more to the top would have been helpful. "Flat welfare" makes about as much sense to me as "flat taxes." The Rockefellers don't need a check. But at least there were ideas on how to solve perceived problems back then. There are only 3 ideas left now: Extend existing stuff, slash existing stuff, and always obstruct.

When Steve Forbes ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996, he talked about inflation being most destructive to families and children. Inflation has driven us from a society where one middle class parent worked and the other stayed at home, helping the kids with their homework, teaching them social skills and manners, to a society where both parents must work just to make ends meet. In too many families today both parents work multiple low-paying jobs and barely even see their children. They don't have the time or energy to raise their kids or be involved in their education.

Forbes' solution was a flat tax and, to eliminate inflation, a return to the gold standard.

[jk]

Re: Our Kids- The American Dream In Crisis

there was an interesting review of putnam's book in the latest new yorker. bottom line, putnam waxes nostalgic about his hometown during his boyhood, papering over e.g. that there were only 2 black students in his class, whom he said surely participated in the american dream just like putnam and his friends. one of those 2, tracked down, said "your then wasn't my then, and your now isn't even my now."

the reviewer also looked at the annual report of the ohio naacp during the year putnam finished high school: failure at passing equal housing legislation, cross burnings around the state, and so on. putnam uses anecdotes, quotes global statistics and fails to connect the 2 forms of information.

so it may be right that society and culture are to blame for a lot of social pathology, but maybe it's not the society and culture of the poor, but the society and culture of the governing class.