We know a very well-off couple, however, the wife is now deceased, that had two boys. Both boys are now highly educated Engineers, sort of like their dad was before retiring. Both boys got a lot and had a very nice upbringing. Money their dad made, plus a nice inheritance from his parents, made that all happen. Not all kids can be brought up with "well off" parents, I sure know I wasn't and neither was my wife. Joy, as I stated before, and Beth has stated, there will be, and have always been, poor kids and rich kids and both can survive. There are kids that get a brand new car for high school graduation and other kids that simply get a Diploma, like myself. There are parents that can take their family to Disney World or on a Disney Cruise with no financial problems in doing it. Then, there are those parents that have to continue to put away money for that one-time Disney World or Disney Cruise. I don't know, rich kids and poor kids...........both make the world go around.
I once read that a family of 4 has the equivalent of $75,000 per year in government benefits available to them...and that's an after-tax amount (meaning a salary would have to be much more than that to net $75,000 after Social Security taxes, Federal income taxes and State income taxes.) The fact of the matter is that "poverty" has mostly been eradicated in this country...but people continue to make the same irresponsible choices that in many (but not all) cases put them/keeps them in that position to begin with. If there truly are starving children, we need to investigate where the taxpayer funds are being spent in that household. We also need to see exactly what those parents are doing with their time all day long, besides complaining that others are not doing enough for their own children. If we want to get angry at one person's success taking food out of the mouths of those who are in need, look no further than Community Organizers and the grievance industry (from senior politicians down to the idiots with megaphones) that keeps repressive conditions in place so that they can enjoy hot air balloon rides at the direct expense of the "poor & needy."
We could fix a lot of ills just by doing away with all the waste and corruption in our governments but our 'representatives' just keep piling it on.
We need to force adults to be responsible for their own lives and the lives of their children, perhaps supplementing--but never replacing--where truly required. And get the Fed out of people's lives.
Poor kids parents not getting much-to-anything is sometimes caused by what their parents are spending money on............and that can be, but not just, illegal drugs. Even though I didn't like it, my ex-wife, and her boyfriend, were spending her Child Support money, from me, on buying marijuana to sell. She actually requested, in-person to me, her Child Support early one time, so him and her could buy a brick of pot to distribute. She was going to spend the night with me, if I have her the money. When I said "sorry, can't do it", she got mad and left my apartment.
We're out of money thanks to people like biden and others. There won't be anything left for Americans if they continue to illegally spend tax dollars buying foreign votes. The cost spent this past two years on illegals is staggering. The real cost hasn't started yet but soon to begin when they all live on welfare and free money and you name it, courtesy of all of us because even if we are retired we will suffer the lesser quality of life thanks to the half wit.
Well, John, if the Feds never got involved, things would be worse than they already are. If adults/parents were left to do whatever they wanted, I think children would suffer even worse.
You don't know that for a fact. The states have a role in all of this. We have no idea how things would be if the Fed wee not involved. The Fed just takes money from people money and hands it out without any accountability. But this opens up a larger issue regarding parental responsibility, minimum standards of care, how intrusive we want to govenrment to be in our lives, and the role government has to supersede the rights of the parents.
Yep. For example, Social security and Medicare is one way to "force" people to become responsible for their lives. Keep the Feds out of that? I doubt many individuals could do much "forcing" of others to do anything.
Social Security and Medicare were contracts to 'force' people to become responsible for their lives. The people paid in to make sure they could be taken care of after they could no longer work. It was called a Trust Fund, where the funds were kept. Then a few presidents, Reagan, Bush, Clinton...decided that the money was just taxes. Reagan left 'IOU's' but the rest just took the money 'as needed'. Clinton kept two sets of books and said we had a balanced budget and claimed there was no inflation. It was gone long ago and I don't know how many sets of books they need to keep now to keep saying it will be gone 'someday'.
It seems that parental rights are being slowly taken away. To be continued. But doling out money without accountability does not seem to be the answer in any way. Look at food stamps. They were sold, traded etc. And when used as intended, the food was not defined as meat, vegetables, fruit...It could be anything ingested. Soda, candy, ice cream, marshmallow cereal... Not sure what the answer is but gov't throwing money at all problems is pretty much what got us here. And the tax cow is running dry. So is the value of money.
Then, there are the poor kids that don't get much and join gangs who promise them money, drugs and fame.
There are people from wealthier families who grow up to be serial killers, so maybe the determining factors have little or nothing to do with parental incomes.