In the past 40 years, America has seen growing inequalities between wealthier and poorer families. Beginning from birth and aggravated by unjust social institutions, children born and raised in poorer families struggle to become successful because of lack of resources and information provided. This ultimately harms society because without the means to improve their life situation, poorer children and children who are not raised properly cannot contribute to society as the future workforce and childcarers. Because the position of children begins at childbirth, it is necessary to equip them with the means to be successful. By revising welfare to allocate monetary resources to poorer families without diminishing returns from taxes on improved earnings, poorer families will be better able to support their children and break the poverty cycle. Similarly, since not all parents know the best way to raise their children, providing government-run childcare services will help children be successful with more equal and improved childcare from expert resources. The government can clearly play a large and influential role in the process of child-rearing, which can, in turn, improve society by raising children to become as successful as possible.
The Solution Citations
Collie, R.J., A.J. Martin, N. Nassar, and C.L. Roberts, “Social and Emotional Behavioral Profiles in Kindergarten: A Population-Based Latent Profile Analysis of Links to Socio-Educational Characteristics and Later Achievement,” American Psychological Association, January 22, 2018.
Lindsey Duncan, Child Poverty and Inequality: Securing a Better Future for America’s Children (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).
Peter Tough, Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why (New York: Paul Tough, 2016).
Vandell, Deborah Lowe, and Barbara Wolfe. “Child Care Quality: Does It Matter and Does It Need to Be Improved?” PsycEXTRA Dataset: 1-11. doi:10.1037/e305862003-001.
The Implications Citation
Eaton, Kim, Jeneva L. Ohan, Werner G. K. Stritzke, and Patrick W. Corrigan, “Failing to Meet the Good Parent Ideal: Self-Stigma in Parents of Children with Mental Health Disorders,” Journal of Child and Family Studies 25, no. 10 (October 2016): 3109-123.
Grant, Julia, Raising Baby by the Book: The Education of American Mothers, (United States: Yale University Press, 1998).
Kathryn Eden and Luke Shaefer, $2.00 a Day (New York: First Mariner Books, 2016).
Rawls, John, A Theory of Justice (United States of America: Harvard University Press, 2001).
Seligman, Martin, “Positive Psychology,” Metanexus, April 14, 2018.
Tommie Shelby, Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform (United States: President and Fellow of Harvard College, 2016).
Peter Tough, Helping Children Succeed: What Works and Why (New York: Paul Tough, 2016).
William MacAskill, Doing Good Better, (New York: Gotham Books, 2015).
The Problem Citations
Collie, R.J., A.J. Martin, N. Nassar, and C.L. Roberts. “Social and Emotional Behavioral Profiles in Kindergarten: A Population-Based Latent Profile Analysis of Links to Socio-Educational Characteristics and Later Achievement.” American Psychological Association, January 22, 2018.
Hughes. “Child Care and Education: Quality, Availability and Parental Involvement.” Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project. December 17, 2015. Accessed April 30, 2018. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/17/4-child-care-and-education-quality-availability-and-parental-involvement/.
Shelby, Tommie. Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform. United States: President and Fellow of Harvard College, 2016.
Figures
Figure 1: Duncan, Lindsey. Child Poverty and Inequality: Securing a Better Future for America’s Children. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Figure 2: Putnam, Robert. Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. New York: Robert D. Putnam, 2015: 126
Figure 3: Putnam, Robert. Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. New York: Robert D. Putnam, 2015: 127
Child Raising Strategies that Benefit All
The placement of children in society and their parents’ abilities to raise them are not the only contributors to underperforming children and the widening inequality gap between children of different social classes. The environment and the quality of care given to children also play an important role in the success of children. It is important for children, especially in early years (ages 1-5) to be “in an environment with plenty of responsive, warm, serve-and-return interactions with caring adults” (Tough 43). Research has shown that the more attention and support a child receives, the greater chance a child has at becoming successful (Collie and Martin). Because not all parents have the same access to childcare knowledge or the ability to spend time with their children, institutions must be set in place that provide universal, quality childcare. “Economists who have studied child care agree that the private market does not work as well for child care as for other industries” because of lack of information to parents, convenience, and cost of childcare, so the government must provide early child support to combat these issues (Vandell and Wolfe 6). Not only will this help children from poorer families to escape poverty by providing care that is often lacking at home, but it will also present improved and equal childcare for all children with professional supervision and focused child care resources.
Critics of Monetary Solution
Critics of governmental monetary support of child-raising argue that this form of support discourages work and that the provided assistance will not necessarily translate into any benefits for children. This assertion proves true in the United States because “the inherent problem with welfare lay in the fact that it is taken away as its recipients improve their situation” (Duncan 105). By improving their social position, parents ultimately worsen the chances of their children succeeding with less monetary support, causing parents to, instead, maintain their poor situations without working to advance their lives or the lives of their children. Increasing taxes on earnings and welfare is the main contributor to this problem. Because the unintended consequence of imposing these taxes resulted in diminishing financial rewards of work and ultimately contributed to the increasing inequality gap between poor and wealthy families and children, “it is important to develop income support programs that meet the needs that welfare provided without the limitations and harmful side effects that welfare created” (Duncan 107). larger tax deductions are the solution to this problem because they preserve the utility of welfare programs while preventing the tendency for parents to maintain, or lessen their current social position.
Monetary Solution
Since parents and caregivers, and the environment that a child grow up in are the most influential factors in the later life success of children, solving the injustices and inequalities that children in poorer families face is the “most effective tool we have in early childhood for improving a child’s future” because children in poorer families begin at a disadvantaged state (Tough 29). For this reason, monetary support must be provided to parents by the government to successfully raise their children “from the day they leave the delivery room” (Duncan 163). By recognizing the financial burden that parents shoulder in raising children and supplementing monetary resources as necessary depending on the family’s financial standing and the needs of their children will “assign the burden of collecting child support to the government, rather than the [parents], because the government has the tools and resources to achieve compliance” (Duncan 163). Lifting the financial burden of child-raising off of parents ensures that parents will have more time and resources to devote to their children.
The Burden of Future Children is Shared
The improvement of society is beneficial for those who are a part of it. Because people want what is best for themselves and act in their best interest, they should act to improve the society that they are a part of. In order to diminish the inequalities that have grown from the differences in socioeconomic statuses, which have been detrimental to society, children must all be raised and educated in the best way possible. “If children have a more equal start, they can all have better chances of succeeding,” and will contribute more to improve society (Tough 50). Aiding parents to best prepare their children and closing the disparity of child education and child rearing between social classes will provide an equal starting point for children to succeed based on their natural abilities. To do this, there must also be “a system that truly acts as a safety net for families in crisis, catching them when they fall” (Eden and Shaefer xxiv). This goes beyond the abilities of parents or the education system. For real change to happen, all of American society must get involved. This requires the sacrifice of personal interest for the betterment of children and for society as a whole.
Not All Child Help is Beneficial
It is evident that most parents want what is best for their children, but that does not necessarily mean that intent attains results. Research in the Journal of Child and Family Studies concludes that “being a good parent was of [utmost] importance to them” and that the belief that parents “had always done what was ‘right’ and ‘best’ for the child and the family, irrespective of others’ opinions,” is commonplace in households, even though this is often not true in actuality (Eaton 25). This confirms that parents think they have good child-rearing abilities because they are acting in the best interest of their children and have good intentions, even though these practices clearly don’t translate into real life success, especially for lower class families. As parents perceive that they are acting in the best interest of their children, they often use confirmation bias to reinforce their beliefs that they are raising their children in the best way they can. “Good intentions can all too easily lead to bad outcomes” and “relying on good intentions alone to inform decisions is potentially disastrous” because of this (MacAskill 5). Intent alone can do no greater good for the success of children and for society as a whole, rather the consequences of parenting determine a child’s ability to succeed. It is not enough for parents to think about how to ensure their children’s development and to determine how to do this by themselves because parents often do not know the best mechanisms for the greatest success of their children, despite them thinking they do. The justification for this is largely consequentialist. What is most important is the outcome of what “good” parenting provides because it creates the most benefit.
Child success is based on the empirical premise that uniform conditions for the raising of children will promote equal available capacity for achievement, even though this may not necessarily translate into the competency of children to act on their given circumstances given their natural abilities. Even so, “children have never been easy to manage, define, or systematize; and parents themselves have rarely been able to conform to the ideals described in childcare manuals” (Grant 1998). As parenting has become a more specialized occupation, it has also become dependent on information from expert sources. But parents need more than just information. Because parents don’t always know what is best for their children “they need someone to teach them how to parent. That is difficult for families who don’t have the means to do so” (Grant 98). Connecting universalist and consequentialist premises requires that parents must be aided in child rearing so that those in need of parental assistance have the resources necessary to get the best results. Furthermore, the inherentist concept that the action of raising children is good is invalid because it does not necessarily better society or even the children themselves.
Moral Implications of Helping All Children
Citizens of the United States simply cannot “continue to increase [their] material wealth while ignoring the human needs of its people. Such a course is likely to lead to increasing selfishness, to alienation between the more and the less fortunate, and eventually to chaos and despair” (Seligman 2018). The overall improvement of society and equal of justice, specifically relating to identical starting points for all children, is necessary for the greatest benefit of society. “A well-ordered society [is] a scheme of cooperation for reciprocal advantage regulated by principles which persons would choose in an initial situation that is fair” (Rawls 29). A well-ordered society is also in the best interest of all who are a part of it since every child has the potential to contribute to a greater and improved society. Because people want what is best for themselves, it is in their best interest to contribute to the betterment of society, beginning with the initial position that children are born into.