Posted on 02/13/2014 11:39:41 AM PST by Kaslin
Culture Challenge of the Week: No Future for our Kids?
President Obama recently warned Americans that too many members of our society never climb the ladder to success—they’re defeated before they even begin. When children have no future, it poses “a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe.”
He actually got that right.
According to a recent Pew study, “[m]ore than 40 percent of Americans raised in the bottom quintile of the family income ladder remain stuck there as adults.”
It’s a tragedy to see human potential go to waste—young lives with talent, heart, and desire falling by the wayside, stuck in poverty and dysfunction.
The real question is we must ask is “why?”
Liberals like President Obama emphasize the factors that fit the Democrat narrative: income inequality, race segregation, and failing schools are to blame. Certainly those factors place obstacles in a child’s way. But the left ignores the most important factor relevant to a child’s success: an intact family. Our history is full of the stories of Americans who succeeded in spite of being born into poverty, suffering racial discrimination, and enduring sub-standard schools. Their success hinged not on government programs but on the people—the families—behind them.
If poor children are less likely to climb the ladder of success today, it’s because our society has failed to confront the cause: the American family has crumbled, particularly among the urban poor. Hollywood liberals and Manhattan elites glibly promote the secular autonomous lifestyle: serial sexual relationships, single parenthood, and irreligion. High incomes and privilege cushion them from the consequences of their choices. The poor are not so lucky. And the children born into poverty suffer the most.
The latest research shows that family instability produces the strongest correlation with lack of upward mobility.According to a study by researchers at Harvard and Berkeley, “family structure correlates with upward mobility not just at the individual level but also at the community level, perhaps because the stability of the social environment affects children's outcomes more broadly.”
Plainly put: children need strong families made up of a mother and a father. When they grow up in a household lacking one or the other, they do far worse. What’s more, when kids grow up in a neighborhood full of other families that lack two parents, the child’s prospects suffer. Just as divorce is contagious, the harmful effects of family instability are ‘contagious’ within the wider community as well.
The positive take-away, according to W. Bradford Wilcoxof the National Marriage Project, is that, “[I]t looks like a married village is more likely to raise the economic prospects of a poor child.”
How to Save Your Family: Keep It Together
The divorce culture in which we live is a major contributor to the problem, but it’s only a portion of the complete picture. The divorce rate among better-educated Americans has actually fallen, while the rate of cohabitation and divorce among lower income Americans has sky rocketed. And the culture of free and easy sex, with little commitment, meaning, or regard for consequences has been a devastating contributor to the formation of unstable families as well as subsequent family breakdown.
Even so, there’s much we can do to build a strong marriage culture within our own circles and family networks. Each of us has a role to play in strengthening the American family. Nurture your our own marital relationships in common sense ways, making time for each other and practicing the small daily kindnesses that touch hearts and lighten burdens. Seek counseling and spiritual support if your relationship is struggling. (In my experience, couples may pursue ‘professional’ help but neglect to ask friends and family for the prayers and spiritual guidance they need.) By all means, if you need outside help get it - start with great resources likeMyFamilyTalk.com and FamilyLIfe.com. And, take a few minutes to visitMarriageSavers.org to find out how you can help strengthen marriages in your entire community with proven methods that work.
If your marriage has weathered the test of time, consider becoming a marriage mentor. Young couples need the witness and wisdom of more experienced couples who can encourage and guide them towards a fulfilling, lasting relationship.
Finally, help foster a culture of sexual integrity among young people, through churches, after-school groups, and community outreach. We know that habitual sexual license produces poor soil for growing a lasting and fulfilling relationship. Mom and dads, not come-and-go “partners,” make the difference in a child’s future. For great materials and support in this effort, visit Abstinence.net, the site of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, an effective and dynamic organization with proven results.
This is America, where every child deserves a chance, and every child’s “chance” depends on family.
Just on hold for another 2 - 3 years
Exactly, the American dream is in hibernation until we get better people in the WH.
Until libs are thrown out of power and positions of influence, Yes. Then it will roar back.
Yes
Si,Si,Si
It’s in a coma, and Obama’s trying to have it removed from life support.
Its in hibernation until citizens want better people in the White House. Obama is just a painful symptom of too many people thinking that liberty and prosperity can be manufactured by more government.
Its was murdered by Free Trade and Open Borders. We could have coped with all the other problems but these attacks were mortal. At this point I would just like to see cosmic justice visited upon the men that enacted these policies.
It must be, when we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on our children’s education, they graduate earning 35k a year and still live home.... yep it’s dead alright!
Obama being removed from office or leaving office can’t come soon enough for me.
There are millions of people who have no intention of working or contributing to society.
There are millions of people who have no knowledge, skills, or work ethic. They can't manage to show up for work on time and scoop ice cream in a productive fashion.
The media is lost.
The schools are lost.
The family structure is lost.
This stuff isn't coming back.
Greece used to be the pinnacle of civilization. Rome was once on top of the world. Spain had an empire and controlled much of the riches of the New World. And little Portugal was right there with her, running an empire across all the oceans of the world.
Where are they now? Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain -- PIGS: the most bankrupt countries of Europe.
We are right there with them. Financially and morally bankrupt.
Our time is over.
Once Liberals succeed in marginalizing individuality and criminalizing the ownership of private property... yes, the dream will be over.
Kartographer gets it.
It’s dead if you’re a conservative, Christian, Caucasian American. If you’re an America-hating, foreign national, it’s just beginning.
She is not dead yet. However, America is dying. All that will be left is “Third World” people eating crumbs and whose disease ridden bodies will die at an average age of 30 years.
Bright sunny day, Patriotic Americans at worship...what's the problem?
Without a change to benevolent, visionary leadership at the top, the American dream is indeed dead... or at least unresponsive.
Maybe it’s not dead after all... it’s just been redefined, that’s all.. As a nation in decline, people are resigning themselves to a lower rung on the ladder.
Nowadays, the “American Dream” largely consists of a roof over your head, enough food and beer in the fridge, enough $$ in the paycheck to make it through the week and whatever government subsidies you can grab up.
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