Inequality Particularly Hard On Children
Though an average American childhood may not be the worst in the world, the disparity between the country’s wealth and the condition of its children is unparalleled. About 14.5 percent of the American population as a whole is poor, but 19.9 percent of children – some 15 million individuals – live in poverty. Among developed countries, only Romania has a higher rate of child poverty. The US rate is two-thirds higher than that in the United Kingdom, and up to four times the rate in the Nordic countries. For some groups, the situation is much worse: more than 38 percent of black children and 30 percent of Hispanic children, are poor.
And the consequences are dire:
Income inequality is correlated with inequalities in health, access to education and exposure to environmental hazards, all of which burden children more than other segments of the population. Indeed, nearly one in five poor American children are diagnosed with asthma, a rate 60 percent higher than non-poor children. Learning disabilities occur almost twice as frequently among children in households earning less than $35,000 a year than they do in households earning more than $100,000. And some in Congress want to cut food stamps – on which some 23 million American households depend, threatening the poorest children with hunger.
Please “like” us on Facebook.
Click here for reuse options!Copyright 2015 Liberaland
By: Stuart Shapiro
Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.
6 responses to Inequality Particularly Hard On Children
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
rg9rts January 4th, 2015 at 06:14
Where is the surprise??? The gopee loses all interest once the parasite leaves the womb.. food? Education? Shelter? Medical care? Get a job
rg9rts January 4th, 2015 at 07:14
Where is the surprise??? The gopee loses all interest once the parasite leaves the womb.. food? Education? Shelter? Medical care? Get a job
illinoisboy1977 January 5th, 2015 at 12:22
Food stamps shouldn’t be cut, but I think free vocational training and child care assistance should be available for Public Aid recipients. Most people aren’t on public assistance, because they WANT to be. They’d rather be working. I think a solid vocational training program and child care provisions would go a long way toward helping single parents, or even couples who need two incomes to survive, to dig out of the hole and earn themselves a decent living. A welding certificate, HVAC certificate, etc. can take someone from abject poverty, to a pretty comfortable lifestyle. I would consider it money, well-spent.
illinoisboy1977 January 5th, 2015 at 13:22
Food stamps shouldn’t be cut, but I think free vocational training and child care assistance should be available for Public Aid recipients. Most people aren’t on public assistance, because they WANT to be. They’d rather be working. I think a solid vocational training program and child care provisions would go a long way toward helping single parents, or even couples who need two incomes to survive, to dig out of the hole and earn themselves a decent living. A welding certificate, HVAC certificate, etc. can take someone from abject poverty, to a pretty comfortable lifestyle. I would consider it money, well-spent.
Jane January 6th, 2015 at 13:28
I wish governments and policy makers would spend more time on analysing the inequalities that occur at birth than using political ideologies to play the blame game. In the UK most people on social benefits are in work but don’t earn enough. When a child is born into these families it is being born into inequality. Depriving these children of social assistance is to choke off any life chances both at the point of birth and during their childhood.
Jane January 6th, 2015 at 14:28
I wish governments and policy makers would spend more time on analysing the inequalities that occur at birth than using political ideologies to play the blame game. In the UK most people on social benefits are in work but don’t earn enough. When a child is born into these families it is being born into inequality. Depriving these children of social assistance is to choke off any life chances both at the point of birth and during their childhood.