Report: U.S. Kids Losing Ground

Neglect has its consequences, as do the ideologies and policies that foster it.  A new study ranks the well-being of American children at number 26 out of 29 Western countries researched, ahead of only Lithuania, Latvia and Romania, and behind such places as Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia and Greece.  You can see the Washington Post story on it here.  

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report compared kids in 29 developed and "emerging" Western countries in five categories: material well-being, health and safety, behaviors and risks, housing and environment, and education.  The U.S. was in the bottom third on all five counts, lagging worst in education and poverty.  The Netherlands came in first, followed by Norway, Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Germany.

The report found that the countries with the best child well-being were also the ones that invest most heavily in social safety nets, into which the Scandinavian countries contribute "nearly 7% of their GDP."  Meanwhile, budget cuts for education and sequesters for programs for the needy have become the order of the day in the United States over the past few years.

With a per capita GDP of more than $48,000 in 2012, the U.S. is by far the richest nation in the study, but its priorities do not match its resources.  The study finds that "income inequality has increased the population of children who grow up in poverty" and that the U.S. economy is "one of the most unequal in the Western world."  Many American children are "doing great" but so many U.S. kids are "so much worse off than the average Greek or Slovakian child as to bring the overall U.S average beneath those other less wealthy and developed countries."

Our deterioration into an increasingly two-tiered society, the haves and the have-nots, is clearly underscored in research such as this.  Without a restoration of ameliorative spending, programs and help for a burgeoning underclass, these trends will do nothing but worsen.  The Republican fixation with slashing spending and leaving those without resources to sink on their own is leading to a looming competitive and social catastrophe.  It is imperative that the American people reject this philosophy; it is not only mean-spirited, but a growing body of research also shows that it simply does not work.