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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted
from the July 25, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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Social scientists often say you can determine any socioeconomic system's level of development by examining the status of women and children. Under the conditions of contemporary capitalism in the United States, the heightened plight of working families amplifies the harsh conditions facing children.
Low pay, layoffs, the elimination of public assistance and other economic blows all contribute to family problems. Increasing social polarization concretely affects the lives of children.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 15 million children--one out of every four--live below the official poverty line. More children live in poverty in the United States than in any other advanced, industrialized country.
Despite all the right-wing propaganda, most poor children do not come from families receiving public assistance associated with unwed teenage pregnancies. According to a recent study conducted by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, only 14 percent of all children living in poverty fall into this category.
More impoverished children are born to working parents 25 years or older than ever before; these families have one or two parents who work in jobs for 40 hours or more per week.
The number of children in this category has steadily climbed from 3.4 million children in 1974 to 4.3 million in 1989 to 5.6 million in 1994.
This shows where the capitalist economy has been heading.
As bad as it is to be poor without a job, these figures reflect that millions who work hard earn so little that they have to raise a family in the same misery as the unemployed.
Consider these shocking statistics from the Casey report comparing the 1970s to the present: Real earnings for African American workers with no specialized skills or profession have dropped by 50 percent. Real earnings for all male workers have dropped by 30 percent. Women, always underpaid, have lost 20 percent in real earnings.
Who but right-wing ideologues can avoid seeing the connection between this intensifying crisis for workers under capitalism and the worsening situation for children, including the disintegration of families?
Every economic attack by the capitalist bosses, approved by government policies, concretely and emotionally affects poor children. It worsens the feeling of alienation among family members and even the tendency to blame those closest and dearest.
In many cases, economic frustrations reach a level of despair that leads to pathological behavior, like male violence against women and adult violence against children.
The 20 years covered in the Casey Foundation report include times of both Republican and Democratic Party control. Both are political parties of the capitalist class.
Many government studies made during this period have documented how social problems affect the young. But neither party has come up with a remedy. In fact, the steps taken by the government have often made matters worse for children.
All levels of government have allowed the deterioration of public education--such as overcrowding in old and hazardous school buildings, the elimination of lunch programs, the use of outdated textbooks, and the failure to introduce computers in the more working-class schools.
Many groups of educators and parents nationwide have noted that these problems have decreased interest among students and teachers alike, a scenario they say has contributed to high rates of illiter acy and an estimated school drop out rate of 800,000 per year.
While the rich can afford to have their children trained in elite schools by instructors with prestigious credentials, working-class children are rarely given the opportunity to develop academically. But they are well trained in one respect: to accept the "norms" of capitalist oppression.
For example, children are taught history distorted by a racist, sexist and homophobic slant. Traditional education under capitalism glorifies wealthy white men who were tyrants, slave owners, invaders and robber barons.
Capitalist ideology, including anti- communism, is the norm.
This curriculum distorts reality while it fosters pessimism, identity conflict and low self-esteem, particularly among children of oppressed nationalities.
What solution to these social and economic problems is advanced by both capitalist parties? Criminalizing the symptoms of oppression.
According to the National Council On Crime and Delinquency, between 1983 and 1993 juvenile arrests for violent crimes jumped 132 percent, while juvenile violent deaths rose 154 percent.
The right wing mentions these statistics quite often, but fails to connect them to the social and economic reality of capitalism.
In some states the judicial system now punishes working parents for the "deviant" acts of their troubled children. The creation of more youth detention centers and charging youths as adults demonstrate the repressive trend in this period. This trend is aggravated by racist police beatings and the killing of youths.
The Casey Foundation report shows that conditions for children have deteriorated under late 20th century U.S. capitalism. It indicates that mistreatment of children is unavoidable under capitalism.
The well-being and happiness of children requires a complete revolutionary change of society, eradicating capitalist oppression forever.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)