Since it’s a weeknight and I’m still working full time for a living, I’m gonna try to make this quick. I’m just going to cite an interesting article that I read over the weekend, and add a quick though or two, not a complete essay.<\/p>\n
If you are interesting in poverty and social justice in America, Nicholas Kristof has a very thought provoking (and hopefully an ACTION provoking) article in the NY Times, entitled “The Way to Beat Poverty<\/a>“. That’s quite an ambitious title, given that America has been trying to beat poverty since the days of Lyndon Johnson. To put it optimistically, our national efforts have had “mixed success<\/a>” over the past half century. Kristof and co-author Cheryl WuDunn contend that the ongoing generational poverty experienced by many low-income communities is caused, to a great extent, by poor pre-natal and early life care for infants. <\/p>\n We’ve always known that sub-standard conditions in early life were an effect of poverty, but Kristof is saying that it is in fact a CAUSE. He doesn’t use the politically incorrect expressions “cycle of poverty<\/a>” and “poverty culture<\/a>” (this is the New York Times, after all!), but that’s pretty clearly what he’s getting at. <\/p>\n Kristof cites both biological and sociological research along with personal anecdotes to support what appears to be a very cogent and compelling argument — i.e. that single mothers who don’t take proper care of themselves while pregnant, and of their children after birth, impose life-long psychological, emotional and physiological deficits that hinder success as adults. Kristof goes on to argue that there aren’t nearly enough social and governmental programs in poor areas to make a real impact in this problem; but that a modest investment by governments and private charity to expand these efforts would go a long way to reduce poverty over time. I.e., society would get a lot of bang for the buck by ensuring good pre-natal care and early parenting support for poor families — perhaps more return than from the usual nostrums for poverty, e.g. better schools, low-income housing, job training and placement, local economic development to create jobs, etc.<\/p>\n Well, I certainly agree with Mr. Kristof, and I definitely support more funding for early life programs. But let me ask one question, perhaps a somewhat inconvenient question, for New York Times readers and their like – – isn’t Nicholas Kristof saying here that inner cities, mountain “hollars”, and rural villages in places like West Virginia and Mississippi are producing a class of people who are “damaged goods”? And doesn’t this support those who contend that the social and economic status of the denizens of these environments (who are often of black or Hispanic racial \/ ethnic heritage) is hindered mainly by their immediate social environment (yes, the “culture of poverty” thing), and not so much by any irrational racist presumptions of the American society at large?<\/p>\n I know that this is a very complex issue, and I personally agree with those who contend that racism and irrationality on the part of white Americans still exists, and still depresses opportunities for those of color hailing from impoverished circumstances. But, as Mr. Kristof’s logic proves, even liberals shouldn’t deny that there is “something about” these circumstances and communities that continues to self-inflict many of their own wounds. <\/p>\n I hope that Mr. Kristof’s excitement about having identified a low-cost “magic bullet” to break the poverty cycle turns out to be real. But the conservatives also have a point, in that community values DO matter — and perhaps Fox News commentators and radio talk show hosts aren’t entirely wrong in pointing this out (although they lose a lot of credibility by being so abrasive and smug). All the early childhood and parenting programs in the world won’t change things very much unless the community itself emphasizes the responsibility of its members to make sacrifices and invest the time and attention needed to allow their young to attain a better life. <\/p>\n I agree, let’s offer these communities more help in caring for their young — but let’s also require them to match these efforts with stronger demands for personal virtue on the part of their members, especially their young parents. There is plenty of virtue in low-income neighborhoods, but that virtue needs to be better taught and transmitted to the young.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since it’s a weeknight and I’m still working full time for a living, I’m gonna try to make this quick. I’m just going to cite an interesting article that I read over the weekend, and add a quick though or two, not a complete essay. If you are interesting in poverty and social justice in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4634"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4645,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4634\/revisions\/4645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}