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TechnoratiWe're getting into the thick of the 2008 election campaign, yet conspicuously missing from the debate are some of the most basic issues for our future - issues that powerfully affect our families and our lives.
According to the 2007 CIA World Factbook report, our wealthy nation ranked 42nd in that most basic measure of quality of life, child mortality. Another 2007 study showed that we lag behind other industrialized nations in surveys of math and reading. Another showed that our maternal mortality rates are higher than those of other rich nations - and even those of some poorer ones.
Most Americans recognize that the real wealth of our nation lies in our children. Yet our great country has fallen way behind in child mortality, child poverty and educational scores. This is a betrayal of our basic principles of equality and opportunity. It's also economically suicidal, because for the new "knowledge economy," the most important capital is "high quality human capital."
Countries that invest in high quality child care, universal health care, stipends for families caring for children, and other caring policies consistently rank highest in international comparisons of quality of life. Their citizens are less stressed, their children's education is assured, crime rates are low and life spans are high.
But wouldn't these more caring economic policies mean "socialist mollycoddling" and lower productivity, as we're so often told? Hardly. They would be the soundest economic investment we can make. As demonstrated by Nordic countries such as Finland, Sweden and Norway, nations that enact caring policies actually score very high in the World Economic Forum's famous global economic competitiveness ratings.
So here's one basic question to ask candidates: What do you propose to do so our nation adequately invests in our children and in the high quality human capital needed to be competitive in the new knowledge-based economy?
Then there's the conversation about poverty. It's amazing that when politicians and the media talk about this problem, they still ignore that worldwide, the mass of the poor and the poorest of the poor are women and children. U.S. government statistics show that women over 65 are twice as likely to be poor as men over 65. When we take into account women's lower work hours and their years with zero earnings due to family care, U.S. women workers make only 38 percent of what men earn over their lifetime - an earning gap much larger than the 23 percent commonly reported.
So here's another question for candidates: Do you support policies like those in other industrialized nations that give visibility and value to caregiving, such as refundable caregiver tax credits, social security credits for child care and paid parental leave?
Here's another question to change the political conversation to focus attention on women and children: The United States is one of only a handful of countries that has not ratified the women's human rights treaty known as CEDAW and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. Do you support U.S. ratification of these treaties, and what would you do to ensure ratification?
Violence against women and children is the most prevalent human rights violation globally - and this violence teaches children it's OK, even moral, to use force to impose one's will. So here's another question: What will you do to address violence against women and children nationally and internationally to help build "cultures of peace," particularly where there's a resurgence of fundamentalist religious vigilantes?
This election year offers an exciting opportunity to make visible issues that lie behind many seemingly intractable problems. For real change that moves us to a more equitable and peaceful era, we've got to ask new questions. That's something every one of us can do.
Carmel resident Riane Eisler is best known for her books "The Chalice and The Blade" and the recent "The Real Wealth of Nations." She is president of the Center for Partnership Studies and co-founder of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence. For more information, see www.rianeeisler.com.
Copyright 2008 The Monterey County Herald
13 Comments so far
Show AllI just do not get it, why is it the rich folks problem to take care of kids they did not concieve? If you made poor choices in life, why the heck should i have to pay for it. The Founding Fathers never intended the Federal Government to take care of people from the "cradle to the grave". All this socialism in this country stinks. If you have had kids you can not afford that sure as heck is not my problem. I graduated HS, went to college got a wonderful career and at 40 started really making money. Uncle Sam has no business in my wallet taking care of people's kids. The parents need to get off their butts and make a life, not the American taxpayers.
i raised 2 daughters. i taught them 1st, education, then education and after that education. i made sure they chose for themselves sports that would occupy their time and strengthen their bodies. the 30 year old trains in kung fu, the 18 year old has been playing ice hockey for 11 years, she, all 5'3" of her can take a 6', 190 lb man down with a decent cross check into the boards, the 30 year old is 5'9" and with the strength she has developed will not allow violence done to her, that bit of a cuban temper. i wanted them to know that if due to reasons of abuse they should always have 911 dialed if you get a chance to see it coming and do all you can to get out or f$$k their partner up until, if, the calvary rides in. education allows you the freedom to leave when you desire, for you should usually be able to get not just a job but perhaps a career. needless to say the eldest is a writer, s-t-r-i-k-e. the other one will start college soon. i was blessed because the oldest had the grades for the scholarships, the other the athletic ability, womn ice hockey players are i demand at university, but from there where?
i do so hope they are able to afford health care if this idotic country keeps rejecting socialized medicine. i would be indeed grateful if their health doesn't fail. dangerous if you are in ill health here.
The resistance to violence can at times merit counter-violence, but such should never be any more than absolute self-defense, or the defense of innocents. Otherwise, we are simply strengthening the vicious circle of hate and aggression, which always comes back to bite us in the rear ad infinitum....Our unprincipled lashing out in the oil lands will now come back to worry and sicken and finally to destroy much of what this nation has built, unless we rapidly renounce violence and MAKE AMENDS.....expensive long lasting and very nearly impossible amends. How much are a million dead Iraquis worth?
In the Children's Crusade of old all the children were forced into slavery.
As I look at the costs of the Republican's Neo-Crusade it is obvious that all of our children have been forced into slavery too.
Health care for children? Can't afford it.
Decent wages for women? Ferged aboud it!
Social Securiy? Commie plot.
Taxes on the wealthy? Sacreligious!
Greenerthanthou, dude, or dudette ~ Whoa that is simplistic. I mean, it sounds good.. but usually a college degree is required for a job that would pay so well that one could afford a nanny! My neighbor is a licensed childcare pro. and she charges $9 an hour to take care of your baby. Without a college degree, jobs at the mall you are lucky to make $10/hr, office-typing you are doin great at $15. All the poor women have to figure out how to go to college now that the Federal Guaranteed Student Loan was abolished and school fees doubled.
The reason why education, health care for children, daycare and other things that are good for the children are branded as "evil commie ideas" by the politicos is because the rich don't WANT the people to be healthy and educated. Educated people are way harder to control, manipulate and lie to. Keep the people poor, dumb and sickly and they are easy to control and exploit.
Though I'm sure this will backfire on them in the end because a nation full of ignorant morons is not conducive to innovation... lack of innovation hurts profits.
Actually, it is morally acceptable to use violence, even lethal violence, in resisting evil. Pacifism is merely cowardice posing as a virtue.
That's a great line--conservatives are the children of unhealed abuse. It is very true.
And it connects with Eisler--she has shown how this poisonous system of abuse and domination gets passed down, generation by generation.
Oddly, Republicans have managed in recent elections to make their "concern" for the unborn be way, way, way more important somehow than the liberals' concerns about children AFTER they're born. 2008 may be the year of change in these priorities.
Conservatives are the children of unhealed abuse. There is nothing more important for the long-term progressivizing of America than the issues Riane Eisler brings up in this article. Let's make the care of and for children a reality. That means nurturing them into this world. And that means preventing harm from coming to them, at home and at school.
The essence of the progressive worldview—cooperation—is brilliantly described by Eisler in her classic book The Chalice and the Blade.
All the poor women should get jobs that pay a lot and hire nannies. That would solve the problem.
How about MORE QUALITY CHILDCARE for busy Mothers and Fathers? I bet a LOT of Moms and Dad WOULD spend more time caring for their children if they could, but with a double-job household (which is often what it takes to keep food on the table and gas in the car) it's a JUGGLING ACT!! Then Mom and Dad will have more time for "quality hand-holding and marital renewal", not to mention that All Healing tonic, commonly known as SLEEP!!!