Notes from "The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity" by Jeffrey Sachs (2011) - 0 views
started by Vetan Kapoor on 22 Mar 13
started by Vetan Kapoor on 22 Mar 13
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* 63% of Americans concur that "It is the responsibility of government to take care of people who can't take care of themselves. The sentiment that government should help the poor who cannot help themselves has been an enduring value in American society.
* Some of the key government programs for poor households include help for nutrition of mothers and young children; preschool; college tuition; and job training. Each of these is a government-supported investment in "human capital" and specifically a way for a poor household to raise its long-term productivity.
Ch 7: The Rigged Game
* In a two-party system, the swing votes are near the center of the income distribution and political ideology. Both parties attempt to woo the middle class and independent voters. The poor are typically not wooed and are often not even mentioned in the campaigns, since they are rarely the swing votes.
* The opinions and needs of the poor are represented only in districts that have a high rate of poverty.
Ch 9: The Mindful Society
* American "poverty trap": a system of handouts, in which the poor are not helped enough to overcome poverty but just barely enough to survive in poverty. Thus, a society that disdains handouts ends up living by them rather than promoting true solutions with lasting value.
o Sachs proposes: more public funding so that poor children can enjoy benefits of healthy diet, quality preschool, and public school
* Problem has been exacerbated by residential stratification of the society - nation has increasingly sorted its communities according to race, class, and even political ideology. Any kind of realistic understanding of the lives of "different" others has suffered accordingly.
Ch 10: Prosperity Regained
* We need an honest approach to poverty, not one that blames the poor and leaves them to their fate. We know that the single most important key to ending the cycle of poverty is to enable today's children growing up in poverty to reach their full human potential. That in turn requires that America as a society invest the human capital - meaning the health, nutrition, cognitive skill, and education - of every child in the nation.
* Poverty rates stagnated for three decades and then began to increase after 2008. One-fifth of today's children are growing up in poverty…Overall, more than 14% of Americans were living below the poverty line in 2010.
* As a result of local financing of education, the variation in spending per pupil between richer and poorer communities is vast…per student outlays of districts at the 95th percentile of spending are often twice the outlays per student at 5th percentile of spending…Poor children in many cases will need even greater than average outlays to help overcome the severe liabilities of growing up in poor neighborhoods, late starts in learning, and fewer opportunities to learn at home from parents with low educational attainments…
* Even before first grade, we must attend to the needs of the youngest and most vulnerable members of society…America is failing millions of young children every step of the way. Trying to make up for those failures starting after age six is far more expensive and less successful than starting at birth.
* In 1959 - poverty rate for children under 18 was 27.3%, fell to 14% in 1969, but has since continued a long-term climb (16.4% in 1979, 19.6% in 1989, 19% in 2008).
* Most of us don't appreciate the horrendous costs of early childhood poverty; they are beyond our intuition, unless we become far more mindful of the poor. The biggest scientific finding of recent years in human development is the vital role of the earliest years of life, from pregnancy through age six, known as early childhood development (ECD).
o When mothers are healthy and properly nourished during pregnancy, when childbirth is safe, and when the young child is properly nourished, provided with quality healthcare, raised in a safe and nurturing environment, and afforded the chance to learn and socialize in preschool - the child is likely to reap lifetime benefits of better health, higher school attainment, and higher labor-market earnings.
o When, on the other hand, the child is born underweight, raised in a dangerous and stressful environment, subjected to the environmental hazards of pollution, noise, and other threats; and precluded by poverty from preschool and quality childcare, the consequences can be disastrous, not just in childhood but for decades onward. Early childhood undernourishment, for example, can lead to chronic poor health in adulthood and greatly reduced productivity at work. ("if a skyscraper stands on shaky foundations…")
o Ex: Sweden public support for families and their children from the earliest age (before schooling)
Day care publicly provided; high quality preschool