Early Childhood Poverty

[jacdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

The following items are from the Aug. 1, 2002, Mid-Hudson Activist
Newsletter, published by the Mid-Hudson National People's Campaign/IAC,
in New Paltz, NY, jacdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------------

EARLY CHILDHOOD POVERTY

It is well known that the economic conditions of early childhood have a
marked impact on subsequent physical, emotional, intellectual and social
development. Yet, it is precisely in the area of early childhood where
U.S. poverty rates are among the highest.

According to a recent study by the National Center for Children in
Poverty, which is associated with Columbia University, "almost one in
five young children (18% in 2000) in the U.S. lives in poverty during
the early years that are so important to future life chances.  The 2.1
million children under age three who are poor face a greater likelihood
of impaired development because of their increased exposure to a number
of factors associated with poverty." Such factors include inadequate
nutrition, environmental toxins, diminished interaction due to maternal
depression, trauma and abuse, lower quality childcare, and parental
substance abuse.

These staggering figures actually represent the reduction in child
poverty during the boom years of the 1990s, a phenomenon that is being
reversed as the U.S. economy worsens and the consequences of cut-backs
in social welfare funding become abusively evident.

According to a report about the study ("Early Childhood Poverty: A
Statistical Profile") by the center's Younghwan Song and Hsien-Hen Lu,
children of one and two years are "more likely to be poor than any other
age group.... Two out of every five young children under age three lived
in poor or nearly poor families in 2000."  This means 4.7 million babies
and toddlers in the wealthiest country in the world are growing up in
poverty or near poverty.

The great majority of early childhood victims of poverty live in working
families -- but wages are low and social services are inadequate. The
report points out that "only 11% of poor children under three live in
families relying exclusively on public assistance." Most of the poor
families are headed by a single parent, usually a young woman who
receives pitifully little support from her government.  Statistically,
the children of national minorities subjugated by racism are
disproportionately poor.

In conclusion, the report notes that early childhood poverty will
increase unless remedial economic and social programs -- which are
hardly on the political horizon for either the Republican or Democratic
parties -- are implemented.  "Other nations with fewer resources than
the United States have been able to do a far better job of preventing
poverty among their young children," the authors point out.

The high rate of early childhood poverty in the U.S. is the extreme and
devastating product of class inequality, all the more rampant for its
systematic disavowal by the mighty and their minions.  Obviously, the
plight of  these tots will hardly merit attention from the most powerful
ruling class in history until its own selfish interests are threatened.

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ENLIGHTENED SELF-INTEREST

What's it really going to take to win the war on terrorism?  The magic
of the marketplace and a strong dose of entrepreneurial "enlightened
self-interest," that's what.  It's no secret that the U.S. business
community is salivating at the prospect of federal and state government
spending of nearly $60 billion next year on so-called homeland security
(not to mention a defense budget now bloated to almost $400 billion).
And this kind of spending is only the beginning, according to the White
House.  USA Today says the new homeland defense business is creating a
"marketing frenzy" by thousands of companies seeking to cash in on the
unexpected bonanza.  In a recent address to the Electronics Industries
Alliance, a trade association for high-tech manufacturers, Tom Ridge,
the Director of Homeland Security, told the assembled corporate
leaders:  "The entrepreneurial spirit is a potent weapon against
terrorism.  We look to your enlightened self-interest.  We want you to
do well by doing good."


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