magz wrote:
Jiheisho wrote:
The family topic is really a part of the culture wars in the US. It really is not an issue, or rather it is an ideological issue driving partisan agendas. If you actually look at public policy you will see the hypocrisy surrounding this. You can see this played out in our child support enforcement program. It is run by States, but depending which State the program is located, it can be housed in the social services department or the attorney general's office, depending on how you view the problem of child support.
But support for the family is one of those warm and fuzzy political topic politicians really like to rally around because it requires no action on their part, but they get to rail on the demise of values.
I'm not in the US and I'm trying to understand why this particular topic is so hot there.
A stable family with more than one adult supporting each other is definitely good and important.
The one-breadwinner nuclear family is often unaffordable.
Two-parents-working nuclear family leaves too little resources for raising children.
In many cultures, grandparents and other relatives or close friends fix it.
Is it bad?
There is nothing bad about the extended family. It is a really common structure here. There are nuclear families as well. Those are more to do with economic necessity. Having to move for a job, for example.
As far as two income households, with both parents working, that is a result of economic policy. In the 80's, companies figured that letting women work was a good way to keep labor costs down (the second family income helped pay the bills and companies did not have to raise wages as much if only one person was the bread winner). Families
felt richer as there were two incomes. The problem is cost went up so fast that a two income household became a necessity. Now that there is no more room to grow, this is starting to hit industries like higher education that have lots of costs and have a hard time to control them. Families simply cannot afford to spend $50,000 to $60,000 per year for a university degree.
I am not sure there is a big discussion around families in the US. Social conservatives usually bring it up as they are looking for something to blame for what they see as social ills. What they don't what to talk about is their economic policies are the real drivers to these problems. For example, the breakdown of family values was seen as the driver for high crime and incarceration rates in the Black communities, even though it was social policy that was driving it.
Sorry, bit of a rambling reply. "Family values" has been a motif in the cultural wars for a long time, but it is more at the level of talking points, rather than real policy.
Sounds like "decay of family values" is used as a moral toot to draw attention away from practical issues in need of adressing. Do I get it correctly?
We have this kind of play here, too. The pandemics goes bad, healthcare system collapses, people die, the economy struggle? Let's focus on abortion and animal rights!
17 Nov 2020, 7:27 am
