Re: "Family values"

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

Margaret wrote:
>The left is going to have to think differently about "family values"
>if it turns out, as I believe, that (North American) capitalism has
>little interest in doing anything on behalf of children (certainly
>not providing day care or making it easier to bear and raise them).
>This might be because there are too many people for the economy to
>support, or because getting maximum work out of women means no
>leave-taking from the workforce, let alone permitting men to make job
>"sacrifices" to help raise their own children.

In fact, it is an assumption that individual families ought to be primary
caretakers of children--which is part of the rhetoric of "family
values"--that has helped to let capital and the state off the hook.
According to this rhetoric, it is individual parents' "values," not
politics, that determine how well kids fare.

To agitate for more social services, including those for kids, left
activists and intellectuals should probably de-emphasize family-centered
_rhetoric_ while calling attention to social _facts_ about how we actually
live now. In this regard, we need to keep in mind that the poorer people
(both adults and kids) are, the less likely their lives and needs are to
fit into the "family"-centered models of social services and public
assistance.

>        Many who are younger are going to have them later than in
>previous cohorts, if at all.
>        This is scarcely a situation of free "choice."
>        Capitalism will treat the "no child" or "one child" or "fewer
>children" pattern as if it were an option or a free decision. But it
>will be no freer than was the decision of early 19th century American
>women to have eight point seven children.

While some may postpone or give up child-bearing due to necessity, we must
also acknowledge that many men and women are not at all interested in
having their own children and/or positively prefer doing something else.
Women who have more education and better financial prospects have tended to
have fewer children than women with less powers and freedoms.

Yoshie