Liberals are going to have to be willing to champion norms that say marriage should come before childrearing and be morally tough about it. Conservatives are going to have to be willing to accept tax increases or benefit cuts so that more can be spent on the earned-income tax credit and other programs that benefit the working class."
Sorry, this is not Brooks confessing the past 50 years of Liberal policies making our society worse. He wants us the lurch leftwards even more.
"It Is All For The Children"
I’m willing to bet that the more solidly Democratic your parent is, the more likely it is that your opportunity is lower.
Stupid parents do set a child back, but luckily the child has free will to become conservative and do well in life.
“Liberals are going to have to be willing to champion norms that say marriage should come before childrearing and be morally tough about it.”
Like that will happen.
And where do they get these statistics about how much time rich/poor parent(s) spend with their children? And most rich parents probably (I don’t have statistics) spend more time working and less time at home.
Liberalism at its core. Two parents aren’t needed. Welfare society. Teen moms. Etc.
This so-called inequality of opportunity has been going on through out history. In fact it is only in America that there has been any sort of leveling of these disparities. So, far from chastising our country, we should be celebrating our liberies, not issuing edicts against our system.
Every child has the chance to get an education, and it is usually the decisions of their leaders, parents, politicians which impair the rise of most children.
LLS
This type of division is exactly what The Bell Curve was written about 20 years ago. The predictions in it have panned out 100%. The Left managed to demonize the book by making it racist, which it absolutely wasn't.
For the last 50years, and increasingly so and at a faster rate over the last 20or so, there has been little economic demand for those with less than average capability. Call it IQ or whatever you choose.
Therefore, as our society is presently constructed, there is little or no place for them in society. To be fully productive and in demand in the economy probably requires an additional IQ point every one or two years.
IOW, a cohort of perhaps 1% of the population falls out of society every year or two. And the rate is increasing.
While the "social safety net" will probably keep such people from starving, there is no place for them in society and no way for them to earn self-respect and that of others and live a meaningful life.
Despite this being far and away the greatest economic and social challenge of our time, absolutely nobody, liberal or conservative, is discussing what to do about it.
THE WORLD IS CHANGING.
We cannot go back to the beloved past (never really existing) utopias of either the right or the left.
Personally, I can see little to disagree with in the article aside from the unexamined assumption that more money handed out in EITC is a large part of the answer. Which is stupid. The problem is not so much lack of finances as it is lack of a place in society.
In other words, if you pursue positive practices and values that help make you prosperous, and raise your children with the same values, they are more likely to enjoy opportunity to prosper.
And if don’t have such values, and can’t pass them on to your children, they will have less opportunity.
Don’t see a problem here. That is actually the way the world is supposed to work. Nobody every promised “fair,” especially for this value of “fair.”
I would also say that this one of the side effects of subsidizing bastardy.
>>Liberals are going to have to be willing to champion norms that say marriage should come before childrearing and be morally tough about it. Conservatives are going to have to be willing to accept tax increases or benefit cuts so that more can be spent on the earned-income tax credit and other programs that benefit the working class.<<
That is a non sequiteur. There is a ton of data linking scholastic and life success to children in married HETEROSEXUAL couples. There are ZERO data linking the EIC to any kind of success in anyone.
There IS a difference in opportunity, depending on your parents, but the only way to fix that is to improve the parenting of the lower half, not attack the upper half. Getting rid of ADC, which has ruined more black kids than any other policy, and providing incentives in govt welfare policies for married couples.
The Times....thumping the class warfare drums for the fall elections.....
Right, because giving the "working class" more $$$ through government hand-outs automatically means they're going to change their moral compass and decide to invest that $$$ on their kids' future instead of spending it on a 60" HDTV or new rims.