I hope it might be constructive to challenge my friends on the right to describe for us what they see as the highest priory concerns facing America today. How is that numbers of individual Americans are distressed and beset.. What is it presents the most acute problems to us as a nation, as a people? Maybe these problems should be on the government agenda, maybe not. The question I raise is simply “what’s wrong””—what is it that’s sending us down the wrong path? My assumption is that it’s differences in what’s of most urgent and important concern and calls for corrective action if any can be devised. I will list my top Of course, I’d like to hear why it is my concern may be misplaced or my understanding of the problem misconceived. But even more, I’d like to know what my friends on the right put at the top of their list of their concerns—what are their top five? Of course all these concerns get very complicated very quickly. But I’ve used strong words for the typical Republican as I perceive him—“zany” being only one of them. I see the policies they favor as likely to raise unemployment and as at best loosely related to fiscal and policy realities. Their chief concern, as I see it, is to propose cuts in federal spending that do more harm than good. And I see them as favoring measures that either leave the problems that concern me unaddressed or work to aggravate them. So I can see I might well be mistaken, and invited those on the right to describe what’s wrong and how they’d fix it. So here are my concerns. What’s going on America that’s of most concern? I am not trying to lay out a program for government action, since some of the problems that concern me I don’t know how government might best address—maybe just by sighing and standing by. But still, here’s what I think is wrong. 1. First on my list would be the effects of a policy of massive incarceration we live with today. We convicted too many and sentenced them for too long, to the point where we became by far the most punitive (liberty-denying) society on the globe. Maybe if those not in prison had gained more it would all have made sense, but shorter sentences to fewer offenders better selected would have been more effective, as similar policies adopted today would be. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate 2. Second, or maybe first, would be moving faster to reduce the extraordinarily high unemployment rate that persists even fifty months after the end of the Great Recession. Sequestration is concededly harmful by design, yet has been embraced by my Republicans. Reductions in spending and employment in current circumstances are misguided, as many conservative economists agree. I agree with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve that the Congress should adopt a less restrictive fiscal policy. 3. A third concern is that United States move quickly to implement the ACA so that the United States can catch upon with other comparable countries in providing access to medical care to everybody. The ACA falls short somewhat of this goal, but it gets us near. Medicaid needs to be expanded and insurance marketed to those not covered by it. Other problems in the medical care system still need to be addressed, and will have to be one way or another. The US spends more and gets less. Fee for service and medical care access based on place of employment aren’t sustainable. Here and elsewhere, to determine what’s reasonable to expect I presume we should refer to what other wealthy, democratic countries have accomplished. If they can do it, and it works, we can do it too, and should. So comparisons where the US comes up short are invidious, and should prompt concern at least. So it’s disturbing that though the US spends a third more of its GDP on medical care, longevity is two or three years lower than in comparable countries that spend less, and that infant mortality rates there are a little over three fifths of ours. 4. Poverty can be and has been overcome, but it shouldn’t have to be. Child poverty is particularly insupportable. Child poverty rates in the United States are markedly higher than in comparable countries. washingtonpost/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/04/15/map-how-35-countries-compare-on-child-poverty-the-u-s-is-ranked-34th/ 5. Child poverty, and income inequality, are important determinants of opportunity to get ahead. America has long prided itself as standing out from others as a land of opportunity. But these days, this belief isn’t borne out by the data. Upward economic mobility in the US is substantially lower than in comparable countries. For instance, do males with fathers born in the lowest quintile rise to a higher quintile? In Scandinavia, 27% remain in the lowest quintile, in the United Kingdom 30% remain, in the United States, 42%. In Scandinavia, 61% rise to the next quintile, or the middle, or the next to the highest, as compared to 57% in the UK and 50% in the US. In Scandinavia and the UK, 12% rise to the top quintile, 8% in the US. (Haskins and Sawhill, Creating an Opportunity Society, p. 66. See also milescorak.files.wordpress/2012/01/inequality-from-generation-to-generation-the-united-states-in-comparison-v3.pdf This and other data suggest that, compared to other wealthy countries, the United States is not a land of opportunity. I think it could be and should be. 6. The homicide rate in the United States is considerably (nearly five times) higher than in comparable countries. 7. As compared to a few decades ago, many more babies are born out of wedlock. Many more families are headed by women, and often these women have additional children by other men, all of whom may drift in and out of all her children’s lives. These household arrangements are much more common among those with less education. 8. The United States Senate denies proportional representation to residents of states with larger populations. Judicial review is undemocratic. It may prove impossible for the separately elected Senate, House and President to take necessary concerted action.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 02:18:54 +0000
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