Heroin Parenting

[Zanza]

I have come to the conclusion that the inescapable root cause of poverty in the US is parents who are incapable or unwilling to provide for their children.

One cause of many surely, but the root cause? All poverty derives from there? Not really.

[Jacob]

Do you have a favoured solution?

We should pretend we can change things and throw some money at various programs once in a while.

Seems pretty realistic.

[Ed Anger]

Huh. I give my kids Sutafed and whisky.

[Monoriu]

I have come to the conclusion that the inescapable root cause of poverty in the US is parents who are incapable or unwilling to provide for their children.

I think this is very plausible, though obviously there are other causes as well.

[CountDeMoney]

I have come to the conclusion that the inescapable root cause of poverty in the US is parents who are incapable or unwilling to provide for their children.

What an odd conclusion.

Remember, he's just talking about the inescapable root cause of poverty in the US, mind you.  All the other numerous root causes of poverty are valid everywhere else.

[Phillip V]

I have come to the conclusion that the inescapable root cause of poverty in the US is parents who are incapable or unwilling to provide for their children.

Then, the reachable root solution to poverty in the US is parents who are capable or willing to provide for others' children.

[Martinus]

So the reason there are poor people is that their parents fucked up; and to solution to this is that we should let politicians determine whether any given couple should have children or not?

I didn't say "determine". I think it should be more of a PSA campaign, not law. But yeah, politicians (and other leaders of public opinion) should go out and say that if you have a minimum wage job, then perhaps having that fifth kid is not such a great idea.

I am calling for a change of cultural mindset. As it is now, even if you are the biggest loser, there are two occasions in your life that the society around you treats you like a hero - getting married and getting a baby. The former is half the problem - yes, people ruin their own lives through marriage very often, hoping that it will somehow improve their failed relationship, but that's just them, fair enough. But the latter ruins the life of a new baby as well if the decision to have one is based on false premises (such as "saving my marriage", "giving my life a meaning" etc.). So yeah, people who should never be given care of a pet are actively encouraged by the society to have kids. This should change.

[Martinus]

I have come to the conclusion that the inescapable root cause of poverty in the US is parents who are incapable or unwilling to provide for their children.

One cause of many surely, but the root cause? All poverty derives from there? Not really.

Most of it. Our social safety nets (even in America) are meant to help people who just fall on hard times due to a stroke of bad luck that it is impossible to predict or prevent.

But I would say that in an overwhelming majority of cases, it is an outcome of a series of bad choices - sadly, first done for the kid by its parents (first of which being having the kid in the first place), and then repeated by the kid. It's really a vicious cycle.

[Martinus]

"They care, they don't really want to abuse them. Not really."

Fuck that. Battered society syndrome. You are what you do.

This.

[The Brain]

I expect parents to take care of their children. I expect people to not have a kid unless they can do that. I think a person who gets a puppy without being able to take care of it is acting irresponsibly, and a kid is a much bigger commitment than a puppy.

I don't think that some kids deserve less than this just because their parents are trash with a sob story.

[Martinus]

Yup. It all boils down to personal responsibility and respecting other adult people by treating them - including as to the expectations - as adults. Pity and "bigotry of low expectations" are among the most socially destructive emotions.

[garbon]

So eradicate the poor by encouraging them not to have kids? I guess that is at least less active than sterilizing them.

[Martinus]

So eradicate the poor by encouraging them not to have kids? I guess that is at least less active than sterilizing them.

Being poor is not a racial or ethic trait, it's a personal condition - and eradicating poverty is a worthy goal right?

I mean we encourage people with transmittable genetic diseases not to have children either - and this is not about eradicating the sufferers but the disease itself.

[garbon]

So eradicate the poor by encouraging them not to have kids? I guess that is at least less active than sterilizing them.

Being poor is not a racial or ethic trait, it's a personal condition - and eradicating poverty is a worthy goal right?

I mean we encourage people with transmittable genetic diseases not to have children either - and this is not about eradicating the sufferers but the disease itself.

Efforts to reduce poverty generally work on premise of helping people up out of poverty not calling for their eventual disappearance via abstinence. That's apalling even before we get to how it would disproportinately affect certain racial groups and ethnicities that have been kept in economic bandage.

[Martinus]

You really are distorting this argument.

Nobody is calling for apalling "disappearance through abstinence". And nobody is also saying that people who are less well off than the average not to have children - often people who are poor can be some of the best and responsible parents.

Rather, the crux of the argument is simple - people should not have children (or more children) if they lack sufficient mental, financial and moral capacity to take care of them. Hopefully for most people such situation of deprivation is transitory. There are those, however, for whom it is permanent or semi permanent - such people should not be encouraged to have children.

Again, I will repeat - I am not calling for any legal or medical means of preventing this, but rather through encouraging responsible parenting. Isn't this what planned parenthood is all about?