America’s Future
Bush proclaimed: "I'm a compassionate conservative." He and congressional Republicans pass themselves off as moralistic, but in fact they are greedy and uncaring. They have looked out for the interests of multinational corporations, big oil, pharmaceutical companies and defense contractors with huge tax cuts. Corporations hide money overseas to avoid paying taxes and nothing has been done to end special tax giveaways to companies that out source jobs overseas.
Most families are working harder to stay afloat with fewer benefits, insufficient incomes, more stress and less job security. An unrestrained extreme form of capitalism has resulted in a diminishing middle class carrying the burden for our country. Congressional Republicans pandered to the wealthy elite without shame.
A United Nations report on the well-being of children in 21 rich nations found that America and Great Britain earned the bottom two spots, while the four Nordic countries were best overall.
Countries were ranked on "material well-being, health and safety, education, peer and family relationships, behaviors and risks, and young people's own subjective sense of well-being." America was last on the list of issues related to health. Our low ranking was driven by the incidence of low birth-weight babies as well as deaths of those under 19 from accidents or injuries per 100,000.
Mothers whose diets were poor in their teenage years and during pregnancy, or who smoke or drink alcohol in pregnancy, were significantly more likely to have low birth-weight babies. This suggests that the well-being of mothers is a critical factor for nearly all aspects of child’s well-being.
Poverty is a key factor in our low ranking. America’s children score lower than most for reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. It ranked second to last in the percent of 15 to 19 year-olds in full time or part time education.
A country cannot be considered doing the best it can for its children if other countries at a similar stage of economic development are doing much better. Although, most of our children live above world standards of poverty, data show a remarkable imbalance of distribution of wealth in America.
Most families are working harder to stay afloat with fewer benefits, insufficient incomes, more stress and less job security. An unrestrained extreme form of capitalism has resulted in a diminishing middle class carrying the burden for our country. Congressional Republicans pandered to the wealthy elite without shame.
A United Nations report on the well-being of children in 21 rich nations found that America and Great Britain earned the bottom two spots, while the four Nordic countries were best overall.
Countries were ranked on "material well-being, health and safety, education, peer and family relationships, behaviors and risks, and young people's own subjective sense of well-being." America was last on the list of issues related to health. Our low ranking was driven by the incidence of low birth-weight babies as well as deaths of those under 19 from accidents or injuries per 100,000.
Mothers whose diets were poor in their teenage years and during pregnancy, or who smoke or drink alcohol in pregnancy, were significantly more likely to have low birth-weight babies. This suggests that the well-being of mothers is a critical factor for nearly all aspects of child’s well-being.
Poverty is a key factor in our low ranking. America’s children score lower than most for reading, mathematical and scientific literacy. It ranked second to last in the percent of 15 to 19 year-olds in full time or part time education.
A country cannot be considered doing the best it can for its children if other countries at a similar stage of economic development are doing much better. Although, most of our children live above world standards of poverty, data show a remarkable imbalance of distribution of wealth in America.
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