Our kids are miserable
February 14, 2007 RJH
Britain and the US rank dead last in a UNICEF report on child welfare. This should come as no surprise to anyone who’s spent any time in the UK. Our laddish, boozed-up, anti-social, satellite-dished, Big Brother obsessed, amoral, stiflingly politically correct, anti-marriage, selfish nation means that “British children are more likely to use drugs, drink alcohol or be sexually active than children elsewhere.”
February 14th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I don’t know about the UK, but I have my doubts about “generalization” in statistics for the US. It ll depends on what part of the country one lives in and the cost of living. I do admit that people want too much sometimes and need to spend more time with their children. Families also need to keep their children in a good church where there is a connection to other famlies. Too much isolation from other families with like values is not good.
As for statistics from these agencies and governments - would would take with a graiin of salt having worked with like-agencies of government.
February 14th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Interesting article. I wonder what these statistics show for a racial breakdown? Netherlands and Sweden were tops in the study, both pretty homogeneously caucasion countries, while UK and US are more diverse. Most US statistics on violent crime, out of wedlock births, etc. are worse for African and Latino immigrant populations as compared to those of European and Asian immigration.
February 14th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
I wouldn’t trade my childhood in the USA for anything… Children in the USA have the ability to do and become anything they can dream. I’m living proof…
February 14th, 2007 at 9:12 pm
The US has the highest budget for “defense” in the world and the UK is next after the US. Wrong government priorities, that is all.
February 14th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Finally our obsession with war and our grotesque military budget chickens come home to roost!
And what did we expect when we have no national health insurance to cover everyone? When profiteering comes before food safety? When we have become a nation of fat junk foodies.
Nationwide studies show that 45 million people in the United States have no health insurance at all.
According to the Editor of Medical News Today :
1998 - 16.3% of Americans had no health insurance
2000 - 14.2% of Americans had no health insurance
2005 - 15.9% of Americans had no health insurance
Over 19% of poor children have no health insurance
The obesity problem in the USA is still growing. This means more people will be needing medical treatment for such illnesses as heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and stroke. If the number of people getting ill grows in parallel with the number of people with no health insurance, the future does not look good for the country’s health care system, its citizens and its economy.
Let’s stop allowing this outrageous profiteering from war and and shift our priorities to peace, life and health.
February 15th, 2007 at 2:13 am
Stephen Johnson says that children in the U.S. can become anything they want or dream. I guess that is why we are last or next to last in every single intenational event in Math, Science, Geography. Maybe they spend too much time dreaming of making it big and soon. Children can become anything they want in any country if they have the tools, and education is the most important tool of all.
February 15th, 2007 at 6:44 am
Selfishness, materialism, respect being uncool.
Interesting that the happiest countries are the most liberal, which rather stymies the pc argument.
“I wonder what these statistics show for a racial breakdown? Netherlands and Sweden were tops in the study, both pretty homogeneously caucasion countries, while UK and US are more diverse”
Sweden and the Netherlands are as diverse as Britain.
February 15th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Tracey, I’m not sure about that last bit. My impression is that the UK is much more racially diverse than both Holland and Sweden, especially Sweden.
December 20th, 2007 at 3:01 am
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February 26th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
The explanation, Ronan, is Maggie Thatcher. Children require nurture and markets don’t nurture. There are limits to libertarianism’s utility.
When Tony Blair emulated Thatcher and cloaked himself as a modernizer, he never appreciated those limits.
That applies even more to the United States. Katrina revealed that anywhere between five and fifteen percent of Americans live effectively under third world conditions. Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi, dismantled medicaid so much that his jurisdiction is the only place in the developed world with rising infant mortality.
Worse, American infrastructure is chronically underfunded. The professional association of civil engineers estimates that there is a one to two trillion dollar funding gap just for maintenance. If that is the state of affairs then it is little wonder that children are dying at higher rates than in other wealthy societies.
On a related but different note, the National Health Service is the worst health care system in Europe. It neither has an independent funding stream nor does the government have the ability to properly manage the behemoth. Other European societies have wisely refrained from nationalizing health care and have empowered municipalities and non-profits instead. Decentralized, private sector management is more effective and efficient than the NHS.
So, in a sense, Britain has created the worst of both worlds. Insufficient extra-market institutions and a huge unmanageable health care bureaucracy.
Compared to that, the effects of immigration are marginal.
May 6th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
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