The Personal Responsibility Mantra - by Ellen Goodman

[MissMillie]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/01/08/the_personal_responsibility_mantra/

A few weeks ago I wrote a column asking why there wasn't more political pressure for child care in a country full of stressed-out working families. Was it because mothers, like those in a focus group I watched, shared the PR mantra: "Nobody asked us to have these children." Was it a belief that kids are private property to be groomed only by their owners?

Well, many, many readers wrote from the PR party. The party line was best expressed by Amanda, who wrote via AOL that: "If you decide to have a child, it is your responsibility to shoulder all the costs and responsibilities. Period. Why should I have to pay for someone else's luxury?" She was not the only one to describe children as a luxury. One reader from Salem, Ore., compared kids to her pets: "It's my choice to get them, and I can't expect the taxpayer to pay for their needs."

Nobody said that parents should be their own kids' physics teachers, police officers, or pediatricians, but they basically said you shouldn't have kids unless you already had every expense up to and through college in some mutual fund.

I love Ellen Goodman. My sister has been throwing this "you choose to have kids, you pay for them" stuff at me for a long time. It bugs the bejeezeez out of me.

[Mikimouse]

1. Sound like classic Malthusian theory to me...

Malthus argued that people should abstain from sex until such time as they were completely secure financially. According to his theory, that would prevent overpopulation and mass starvation. It dovetails very nicely with this society, and that's not necessarily a good thing. It points out just how suspicious and self-serving we really are.

[DBoon]

3. Not only that

it would ensure the eventual extinction of the human race.

In the short run, where would all the cheap easily exploited labor come from?

[Mikimouse]

4. The counter argument to Malthus belongs to Marx...

who states that the bourgeoisie would never allow that to happen, and would, in fact, encourage the proletariat to have large families, thus preserving a large reserve labor force. When the labor force declines in number, the bourgeoisie simply move their production elsewhere. Hmmmm, where can we find contemporary examples of that phenomenon?

[catzies]

5. Not to mention new consumers.

Saw a new Wal-Mart commerical last night, in which a pregnant woman was taking Wal-Mart prenatal vitamins, and shopping for baby items at Wal-Mart. The message was something like, "I trust Wal-Mart; they take care of me." Made me want to :puke: because what Wal-Mart really wants is her to pop out another Wal-Mart customer.

[GOPFighter]

2. "Personal Responsibility" is just a clever way...

...for conservatives to justify cutting welfare and other social safety nets. According to the Cons, everyone is personally responsible for their lives, therefore the poor and jobless are, by definition, IRRESPONSIBLE.

This also allows them to feel morally superior to those less fortunate. Ironically, it's the xian fundies who embrace this the tightest.

We're quickly becoming a country of selfish, mean-spirited people.

[SharonAnn]

6. But they'll take the FICA out of those children's paychecks when

they're working to supply all the infrastructure that the conservatives don't want to pay for so they cut/eliminate their own taxes - but not those of the worker-bees.

Personal responsibility my ASS!