politics

It's not an American problem, it's a Republican problem.

It seems futile to try and guilt people into doing the right thing when one political party in the US is actively campaigning against helping and feeding poor children.

That money that's going to kids and families who need it is money that's not going directly to people who are already rich, and as such can only be made available during dramatic crises. Boring, ongoing crises, like the housing crisis and the poverty crisis and the climate crisis don't count.

Remember, if a US elected politician ever says something along the lines of "It's for the kids" or "Think of the children" while trying to pass a law, then it is without a doubt not about the kids.

Lots of things are holding us back.

1. Too much risk starting a business. There is no guarantee you will get a job as good as you left if the business fails. You can lose the opportunity cost on investments so you can retire or cover a major expense. Health insurance is usually provided by jobs, so you risk access to medical care.

2. Health insurance is provided by employers. Changing job carries risk of getting insurance that will screw you over or have more out of pocket costs than any raise can make up for.

3. Housing costs are so high moving is risky. Buying a place to live at these levels could land you underwater if the market crashes.

4. Transportation almost requires a car, which are money pits even if you get a reliable car that is efficient and you DIY maintenance. You still need parts, insurance, registration, taxes, and fuel. Driving in the United States of Asphalt sucks because traffic jams are frequent in many areas. Since it is practically mandatory, you get to share the road with high people, irresponsible people, people driving cars that are unsafe to even look at, sleep deprived people, and people that for whatever reason can't drive well.

5. Child care. We get so little parental leave that isn't even paid leave and pay out the ass for early childhood care. If you have more than 2 small children, it is probably cheaper to hire a private nanny.

6. Shitty shit. Shitty toys. Shitty furniture. Shitty appliances. Shitty clothes. Shitty shingles. Shitty carpet. There is a lot of shitty shit out there that should never have been made that is long term more expensive than good shit. All that shitty shit filling our shitty houses that we drive home in shitty canyoneros took energy and materials provided by or extracted using fossil fuels. Then it was shipped using fossil fuels. Then when a fire/tornado/hurricane/whatever wrecks our shitty shit we have to pay a shitty insurance deductible and a higher shitty premium.

America can take of it's entire population, every single person within it's national boundaries regardless of their status and situation and make them the healthiest, happiest, most well off people on the planet ..... the country just doesn't want to

To be fair America could solve most of its problems if it wanted to. The politicians are just owned by too many private/corporate entities and choose to blame the other side instead of fixing what needs to be done.

Republicans: we love fetuses. Babies can go fuck themselves with a pineapple, but we loooove fetuses.

It's creepy, really

Worth pointing out when the religious right wing tries to re-brand "Pro-Life" as "Pro-Baby".

We are in a rare moment in American history with no active wars, legal or otherwise.

Any Pentagon funding is going into the scary black box terrorization of other countries that, at this point, we are only doing to spend up armament from bloated military contract deals.

That aside, we still don't fairly tax the rich.

Shit...

You want to end child poverty, easy make both their parents earn livable wage with which they can sustain a family .

who is against that & labor protection and unions >> both parties

This is the best summary I could come up with:

When Rosie Riveters left their homes to manufacture weapons during World War II, the federal government created a fantastic network of free and high-quality child-care centers.

But as soon as each crisis that spawns good policy was over — after Wall Street recovered, after Japan surrendered, after the coronavirus was subdued — the funding was abruptly cut.

For the roughly $12 billion a year it cost to expand the child tax credit, we ensured stability for millions of Americans.

“We are doing our best to serve our communities, and ours here is a fairly low-income area,” said Juanterria Browne-Pope, who owns and runs Kidz with Goals, a 40-child day-care center in Hopewell, Va.

On Wednesday, a group of Democrats introduced the Child Care Stabilization Act of 2023, a bill calling for $16 billion to firm up the nation’s collapsing child-care system.

“The lack of affordable child care in America is holding our families, workers, and economy back,” one of the bill’s backers, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), said in a statement.

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