Locked Out and Locked Up: Youth Missing in Action From Obama's Stimulus Plan

[Agnapostate]

t r u t h o u t | Locked Out and Locked Up: Youth Missing in Action From Obama's Stimulus Plan

Already imperiled before the recent economic meltdown, the quality of life for many young people appears even more fragile in the United States in this time of political, economic and social crisis. A great deal has been written critically about both the conditions that enabled the free market to operate without accountability in the interests of the rich and how it has produced a theater of cruelty that has created enormous suffering for millions of hard-working, decent human beings. Yet, at the same time, there is a thunderous silence on the part of many critics and academics regarding the ongoing insecurity and injustice experienced by young people in this country, which is now being intensified as a result of the state's increasing resort to repression and punitive social policies. The current concerns about the effects of poverty, homelessness, economic injustice and galloping unemployment rates and Obama's plans to rectify them almost completely ignore the effects of these problems on young people in the United States, especially poor whites and youth of color.

Increasingly, children seem to have no standing in the public sphere as citizens and as such are denied any sense of entitlement and agency. Children have fewer rights than almost any other group, and fewer institutions protecting these rights. Consequently, their voices and needs are almost completely absent from the debates, policies and legislative practices that are constructed in terms of their needs. This is not to suggest that adults do not care about youth, but most of those concerns are framed within the realm of the private sphere of the family and can be seen most clearly in the moral panics mobilized around drugs, truancy and kids killing each other. The response to such events, tellingly, is more "get tough on crime policy," never an analysis of the systemic failure to provide safety and security for children through improved social provisions. In public life, however, children seem absent from any discourse about the future and the responsibilities this implies for adult society. Rather, children appear as objects, defined through the debasing language of advertising and consumerism. If not being represented as a symbol of fashion or hailed as a hot niche, youth are often portrayed as a problem, a danger to adult society or, even worse, irrelevant to the future.

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I don't agree with components of the article inasmuch as I don't support "childrens' rights" (I support youth rights), but on the whole, it seems to contain several commendable observations.

 

[garyd]

And buckets of absolute nonsense... Don't forget the idiots writing this claptrap think of children as anyone under 25. Or 45 if it suits them.

 

[editec]

The majority of people living in poverty in the USA are children.

They are those welfare frauds that some of us complain about.

They are the parasites that many of us object to giving welfare to.

 

[random3434]

The majority of people living in poverty in the USA are children.

They are those welfare frauds that some of us complain about.

They are the parasites that many of us object to giving welfare to.

Yes, don't you love these people who blame the children? If we want to help end the cycle of poverty, wouldn't one think that programs to help the children better themselves would be a positive thing?

 

[garyd]

That is because we have a welfare system that rewards unwed pregnancy and households with absent fathers which makes it even more difficult to escape poverty. It is why increasingly a family living in public housing consists of a 60 year old great great gandmother a 45 year old grandmother a thirty year old mom and a pregnant 15 year old all of whom are functionally illiterate and orbited by their various paramors, pimps, and gang bangers who are often largely interchangeable.

 

[random3434]

That is because we have a welfare system that rewards unwed pregnancy and households with absent fathers which makes it even more difficult to escape poverty. It is why increasingly a family living in public housing consists of a 60 year old great great gandmother a 45 year old grandmother a thirty year old mom and a pregnant 15 year old all of whom are functionally illiterate and orbited by their various paramors, pimps, and gang bangers who are often largely interchangeable.

So you don't think implementing programs for children is a good start to help break that cycle? Children are great at absorbing any kind of knowledge passed their way. If we can create some programs (and there are some that exist right now) that can help these children learn skills, and want to stay in school, then maybe we can help them break that cycle. Education is the best defense against poverty.

 

[Avatar4321]

exactly what on earth could have been put in an economic stimulus bill to benefit children? We are trying to freaking stimulate the economy. Children dont work. At least they better not. What are we to subsidize lemonade stands now?

Come on people! Where is the sanity in this world????

 

[garyd]

Did I say that? I would say that the programs we are implementing don't seem to be solving the problem and are in many cases aggravating it when they haven't caused it out right.

We've been trying the leftist approach to helping the poor for four decades at least and we have four lost generations of children to show for it. It is now clear that the easiest way to become poor in perpetuity is to get pregnant in high school. The left's approach is condom giveaways which obviously didn't work and the right's approach is abstinence only which also doesn't work because there is no one in the lives of these children that models abstinence. I suspect that handing out free birth control pills isn't going to do more than please the pimps since their ho's won't have as much down time for pregnancy, as by and large the public housing culture views having a baby is just another way to get money from the government.

 

[random3434]

Did I say that? I would say that the programs we are implementing don't seem to be solving the problem and are in many cases aggravating it when they haven't caused it out right.

We've been trying the leftist approach to helping the poor for four decades at least and we have four lost generations of children to show for it. It is now clear that the easiest way to become poor in perpetuity is to get pregnant in high school. The left's approach is condom giveaways which obviously didn't work and the right's approach is abstinence only which also doesn't work because there is no one in the lives of these children that models abstinence. I suspect that handing out free birth control pills isn't going to do more than please the pimps since their ho's won't have as much down time for pregnancy, as by and large the public housing culture views having a baby is just another way to get money from the government.

Well, when you are calling everyone "hos" and "pimps", it's hard to take anything you say with any credibility. These are people we are talking about, and yes, a lot of them do want a better life for themselves. I teach in the inner city, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in my city. When these kids are asked what they want to be when they grow up, a lot of them say teachers, firemen, policemen, one little boy even said he wanted to be a garbage truck driver like his daddy! When you already have given up on our youth, I can see why you would be cynical. But there are some of us out here that believe we can help them make better lives for themselves. Imagine that!

 

[garyd]

I am not saying everyone is idiot. A lot of people aren't but they don't live in public housing projects. And their kids aren't truly poor because they have responsible parents both of whom often work because cost of housing tends to dictate the necessity of that. And please note that word parentS

 

[Red Dawn]

That is because we have a welfare system that rewards unwed pregnancy and households with absent fathers which makes it even more difficult to escape poverty. It is why increasingly a family living in public housing consists of a 60 year old great great gandmother a 45 year old grandmother a thirty year old mom and a pregnant 15 year old all of whom are functionally illiterate and orbited by their various paramors, pimps, and gang bangers who are often largely interchangeable.

stfu bush voter. Your racism is shining through. Most people on welfare are white, so your gang banger rhetoric is a thinly veiled admission that your views on this are through the prism of racial bias and stereotype.

You don't give a crap about poor children. you vote for people who would deny a qualified gay couple the right to adopt, so don't post your shit about your alleged "concern" about teen pregnancy and single mothers. You vote for people who have a history of being against pell grants, job training programs, and plan b contraception. so you don't give a shit about this as a social isssue, you just care that a few pennies a year of your tax dollars go to disadvantaged poor people. At least be honest about that. You just want to deny poor people the few pennies a year it costs you in taxes.

Which is laughble, considering you forced the rest of us a trillion dollars on Iraq, instead of on america

 

[mightypeon]

Well, in Germany a fair amount of money is going into renovating schools and hiring teachers.
Sounds like a "gasp" plan.
I am absolutly stunned that my gouverment does something akin to common sense.

 

[Avatar4321]

That is because we have a welfare system that rewards unwed pregnancy and households with absent fathers which makes it even more difficult to escape poverty. It is why increasingly a family living in public housing consists of a 60 year old great great gandmother a 45 year old grandmother a thirty year old mom and a pregnant 15 year old all of whom are functionally illiterate and orbited by their various paramors, pimps, and gang bangers who are often largely interchangeable.

stfu bush voter. Your racism is shining through. Most people on welfare are white, so your gang banger rhetoric is a thinly veiled admission that your views on this are through the prism of racial bias and stereotype.

You don't give a crap about poor children. you vote for people who would deny a qualified gay couple the right to adopt, so don't post your shit about your alleged "concern" about teen pregnancy and single mothers. You vote for people who have a history of being against pell grants, job training programs, and plan b contraception. so you don't give a shit about this as a social isssue, you just care that a few pennies a year of your tax dollars go to disadvantaged poor people. At least be honest about that. You just want to deny poor people the few pennies a year it costs you in taxes.

Which is laughble, considering you forced the rest of us a trillion dollars on Iraq, instead of on america

You know, in your efforts to condemn racism, you have shown how racist you are. No one has mentioned race until you did. You are the one assuming that if someone is talking about the problems of the welfare culture and broken families they are talking about blacks.

But it's not really a surprise. You dont have anything coherent to say about the subject so you yell racism to distract people.

 

[garyd]

Illigitimacy in the projects regardless of Race is very high. The percentage of whites on welfare has been higher than 50% since the failed Carter Presidency. You sir are a true freaking Moron and I'd appreciate it red dummy if you'd quit projecting your own character flaws on myself and others.