How is Capitalism Killing the Kids?

[proud2BlibKansan]

How is Capitalism Killing the Kids?

An illustration of how this capitalist culture has affected our kids…

*** On the surface all seems natural enough, until, in this preschool nursery, a little 4 year old boy , zooming from toy to toy, sees a little girl picking up a toy truck. He yanks it from her hand and bashes her over the head. Heedless of the girl’s shrieks and his teacher’s warnings, the boy rushes to another corner of the room, to another toy , and when someone manages to pick him up to discipline him, his body stiffens. He kicks and screams***

A child who is consistently callous and emotionally distant, seemingly immune to the rules and feelings of others, is what psychologists call “unattached.”

Who’s to blame for kids without a conscience? Violent kids in preschool classrooms, with no remorse. No loving bonds in the first two years of life because parents must work at two or more jobs to keep the apartment, or the home mortgage, contribute to dysfunctional families that result in more children without a “conscience “ as time goes by. In addition, criminologists and child development specialists believe that the combined effects of poverty and the resultant crime produce children who are emotionally distant, manipulative and selfish to the extreme.

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But the sources of child disattachment are not limited to ghetto children. Children can be detached from parents on any and all economic levels. Mom and Pop breadwinners, who work 12 hours a day to keep up the “success” image and who “warehouse” their children to day care centers, can create a precarious situation for a young child. Day care centers hire workers who come and go, and leave child attachments in limbo, and the child becomes dispossessed of relationships that had potential bonding benefits.

more . . . http://www.opednews.com/articles/life_a_wally_080324_capitalism_is_killin.htm

[Noirceuil]

1. Can you say...

"grossly exaggerated propaganda". If not capitalism, then what economic system do you propose the U.S. adopt? Socialism? Communism? The children of Cuba and China might not agree.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Socialism works for me

Nothing wrong with giving people what they need, taking care of our kids and making our corner of the world a more pleasant place to live.

[bluerum]

3. Yes I can. But it certainly does not apply to the OP.

Children need guided interaction in order to learn how to interact. It does not happen on its own. They can easily go from hitting people to get a toy to shooting someone for a few $$$'s if they do not develop the capacity to empathize and be part of society.

[teacher gal]

4. Capitalism itself

unfettered and without restraint, is profoundly undemocratic and destructive to ordinary people and the poor. We need a balance where the free market and democracy co-exist well together. Right now in our country, I think we have only the illusion of democracy. Corporations are literally running the country. Into the ground.

[teacher gal]

5. Oh, and here's a rec for you!

Wouldn't mind if you'd help me out with my thread too, ha. About the principal who threatened to kill some teachers over test scores.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. I saw that!!

Jesus Christ. Couldn't believe it. Sent it out in an email to my teacher contacts with the subject "Proof NCLB really DOES need to go".

[Mr Rabble]

6. Capitalism is not really the system that we have anyway.

Im not sure what we have in the US- perhaps corporate capitalism- but it sure isnt capitalism as the rest of the world knows it.

In the US there is such significant government interference in the markets on behalf of the wealthy that calling our system capitalism is absurd.

Now if the state were to intervene on behalf of the citizens instead of the corporations, than we would really be in great shape- or at least better shape.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. We definitely have neglected kids

No doubt about that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. You are right, we live under corporatism

let me see, how did Mussolini call it, since HE crated the system first?

Fascism.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Predictable.... mention any problems with Chicago School Economics

and the bogey man comes out

[electron_blue]

7. oh gawd, just another article bashing children who have caregivers other than their parents

what a bunch of b.s. No doubt there are children with attachment problems in this world, but studies show that they are no more likely to come from a home with working parents.

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. Ask any teacher

We are seeing more and more kids like this all the time. It is frightening.

We can either argue about what causes it or we can work to help these kids and address the root causes.

[electron_blue]

31. I'm interested in what the scientific studies say, not anecdotal reports from teachers.

Attacking working parents (which the original article does) is not the solution. I'm all for working on helping the children, but if you want to say parents working is one of the root causes, then we're not going to get anywhere.

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. I am not attacking parents

I am merely stating the fact that many of our kids are very troubled. Many more all the time. They impact the environment for every child in their setting, be it day care or school.

Any teacher can tell you that way too many kids are going home to no adult in the home and largely unsupervised settings. It is troubling.

We can either ignore it or try to help these kids. I am a parent and I know I would do just about anything to help my kids. And sometimes we need to do more than buy them stuff. Giving them time and attention is a lot more effective for lots of kids.

[LWolf]

10. Time to share.

We know this is true, Proud, because we see the results every day, every year, with so many of other people's children. I live with a child like this, though, and take it very personally.

My grandchild. It took 4.5 years and all the resources we had to wrest him from his abusive mother. My son now has full custody, and we set up house together to try to provide a stable family situation for him.

4.5 years with an abusive, unattached parent did some pretty severe damage. My grandson has numerous diagnoses, including ODD. He's extreme. He's been in counseling since my son got custody; family counseling, as we all go to be trained in how to deal with him. He didn't make it in a regular public school, and attends a county school for emotionally disturbed children. When he was 4, we despaired. Doctors and counselors told us at that time that, if it took 4 years to develop his problems, it would probably take 8 years to resolve them.

Not exactly a happy thought. 3.5 years into this, and he is doing much better. He still cannot attend a regular public school. He still cannot be trusted out of our sight. He still cannot be cared for by anyone but his dad, myself, and my mother. We see improvement, and we hold on to hope for more.

He is finally learning how to empathize with others...a little. 3.5 years of constant, steady love, safety, consistency, and fairness, and he is beginning to come around. He has a long way to go.

How many of the children this article is discussing will have that kind of intensive intervention?

One of our SPED teachers, who works with me, and with my students on a daily basis, is in the process of adopting 3 children who were removed, permanently, from the parents' care and put into foster care. She deals with many of the same issues. Times 3.

[teacher gal]

11. I had no idea

Thank you for sharing. You are heroes in my eyes. Blessings to you and your grandson.

[lonestarnot]

12. So much very much excellence on you!

:hug: :applause:

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. I know how hard you have worked with your grandson

And I know he will be fine one day. That is the hope you have to cling to.

I also have a troubled child. He is almost 30 years old. But I will never give up on him. All we have is hope. And we must arm ourselves with knowledge.

It will all make a difference eventually. I just know it.

[LWolf]

27. Words of hope are always appreciated.

I'm glad that we can finally begin to see enough progress to hold out hope.

Hope for my grandson. Hope and care for your son. Where is the hope for the rest?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

23. Hugs to you for all of you and your families loving work to help your grandson.

:hug:

[LWolf]

38. Thank you. n/t

[kineneb]

41. my personal experience

My mother was 19 (& married) when I was born, and we never have really bonded. She was really too young to have a child, and it has always seemed that -I- was not the child she wanted. My father just wanted kids, lots of them. So, my parents divorced when I was about 3, circa 1961/2.

I was, at age 4, given the choice of living with either parent or with my grandparents; I chose my grandparents. But it was clear to me during my childhood that I didn't really belong anywhere and really had no family. When I told my therapist about this, he looked appalled and told me what my family had done was called "emotional abuse". I had never thought of it that way, but to be considered more of a pawn than a person is damaging. I still struggle with that emotional damage.

Add into this mix a genetic predisposition for clinical depression and suicide, and you can guess that I was pretty messed up. Unlike some other children, I internalized my problems to the point of considering suicide. Because I was a very smart child, people assumed I could take care of my own issues; that left me even more alone and depressed.

Early abuse and neglect can manifest in all kinds of ways. Lack of empathy is one; self-destructiveness is another way.

[madmusic]

13. Could we...

Blame it on http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=6990">ALEC?

[BoneDaddy]

16. I understand concerns about Capitalism but I fail to see the connection

between capitalism and children who act out. I have worked in education for close to 20 years and that is not the case at all... nice try.

[teacher gal]

17. Capitalism

and greed run amok are contributing greatly, in my opinion, to the great and growing divide between the rich and the poor and the dwindling middle class in our nation. And poverty itself with its attendant deprivations, while there are exceptions, does indeed impact a child's behavior and ability to learn. Personally, I have long suspected that a great deal of the acting out and behavior problems we see are a defense mechanism children use to protect themselves and divert attention away from their difficulties with learning.

Just some thoughts...I may be wrong.

[Karenina]

18. To expand on your thoughts...

Media as the proponent of capitalism, targets children and conditions them into lifelong consumers. I wonder what and how you feel about its effects on attention spans.

[BoneDaddy]

21. I think everything is connected

and following your logical pattern, surely, poverty and lack of resources certainly affect children, but a direct causal relationship is stretching it far.

[RadiationTherapy]

43. To put it bluntly and oversimplified, you cant care about people AND make a profit.

There has to be a modicum of emotional distance from your fellow humans to charge an overhead just because you can. This especially applies to life's essentials.

[Echo In Light]

19. Marcuse quotes:

"We may distinguish both true and false needs. "False" are those which are superimposed upon the individual by particular social interests in his repression: the needs which perpetuate toil, aggressiveness, misery, and injustice. Their satisfaction might be most gratifying to the individual, but this happiness is not a condition which has to be maintained and protected if it serves to arrest the development of the ability (his own and others) to recognize the disease of the whole and grasp the chances of curing the disease. The result then is euphoria in unhappiness. Most of the prevailing needs to relax, to have fun, to behave and consume in accordance with the advertisements, to love and hate what others love and hate, belong to this category of false needs."

Excerpt from One-Dimensional Society, 1: The New Forms of Control
http://igw.tuwien.ac.at/christian/marcuse/odm.html

[Jeffersons Ghost]

20. K&R... when children at the TOP economic level become "detached"...

they grow up to be Bush and Cheney.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

24. Before I gave birth to my first son, 21 years ago yesterday, I made a conscious decision

not to work and not entrust him in the care of a surrogate mother. I felt that if I took the responsibility of bringing this child into the world, I would do my best to nurture him. When he was about 2 1/2 years old, financial pressures were up here and I toyed with returning to work, not wanting to, and simultaneously became pregnant again with my second son. Although on some level, it cost me my marriage (my ex-husband made some foolish financial decisions and resented the fact that I wasn't working), I would gladly do this again, 100 times over.

When they were 5 & 8 I had no choice but to work but then did make a choice by choosing how I would work. I decided the best solution would be to create a business that allowed me to be home for them during the week, and their dad could watch them on the weekends. I started to sell at local music festivals, fairs and flea markets. Always close enough to home if emergencies came up. Sometimes my younger son joined me. Then a better solution made itself available. I discovered the Internet and started an online business which was an extension of my weekend business, that allowed me to be home 100% of the time for them. I've been fortunate.

Both of my sons are very bright, well adjusted young men. They never suffered from separation anxiety, and in fact, when going to their first days of school, they ran in happily, while I was the one in tears. I sent them to a part-time pre-school that stressed socialization and not education.

They still have as many friends as they want to have in their lives, and have a very strong self. I can also proudly say, they are both very politically awake.

It really saddens me that so many parents/children are not given the choice I had. Although affected financially in making this decision, I was still in a much more comfortable position than so many women/men who can't even think of making the choice that I did.

[Adarlene]

25. Daycare is not "Warehousing" in my world.

The article talks about "warehousing" children for the sake of "success". Underlyingly (is that a word?) it is saying that if the child only had a stay at home parent all would be okay. Having a parent at home does not guarantee that a child will "turn out properly".
I would say it's more a lack of parenting skills than anything. I raised my son on my own for his first eight years. He was in daycare from 9 months on. As he is an only child, this was his only social network, the only way he could possibly learn how to cope with others his own (and varied) ages. He is now 14, an honour student, a cadet... he is this way because I raised him with rules. I didn't feel guilty when I got home from work and didn't give in to his every little whim (many working parents give "things" and hold back on discipline because they feel guilty).
I have only two pieces of advice for raising children: 1. Mean your "no". Always. 2. Follow through. If you tell little Johnny you are going to take away his gameboy -- do it! But give him a way to earn it back.
The boy described in the article probably would've been that way regardless of whether mom worked or not. Some people are just born mentally stunted (doesn't mean they can't be helped).

My 2 cents ;)

[Ordr]

26. Government involvement in capitalism is the problem.

Not capitalism itself.

[Unvanguard]

32. Capitalism IS government involvement.

The property system upon which it is based is defended by the coercive organized violence of the state.

[elehhhhna]

28. torture's leagl, mad cow burgers in public schools, cage fighting 6 y/o's..

we are a sick sick sick society.

[selador]

30. bunch of anti-capitalist rubbish

capitalism doesn't imply you need to neglect your kids.

some choose to do that, but get real. others need to work long hours to get by, but that's hardly a problem of capitalism itself.

capitalism is the best system ever designed to build wealth.

[Locrian]

33. capitalism

Do you really call what the we have in the US as "capitalism"?

[selador]

34. yes

regulated capitalism. but certainly capitalism

im about as big a fan of the capitalist system as you can find

[proud2BlibKansan]

36. BUILDING WEALTH AT WHAT PRICE?

That's the whole point of the article.

[TrogL]

37. Bullshit - they're just finding new ways to blame the AS kids for everything

Looks to me like the kid stealing toys has problems with socialization and is likely on the autistic spectrum.

The latest meme going around is that all AS people are violent and dangerous and should be removed from society.

[proud2BlibKansan]

39. Wow I don't see that at all

I am a special ed teacher and I can assure you that the vast majority of the troubled kids in our schools are NOT on the autism spectrum.

[KillCapitalism]

40. Just shows ya how times have changed.

Back in the 50's & 60's a family could get by just fine with one member working, and the other half at home caring for the children.

Fast forward to 2008 and most people STRUGGLE to make ends meet with TWO incomes. Something has to change.

[pitohui]

42. that's a decent example

i have a more literal mind and the example i would have chosen of how capitalism kills is the skyrocketing asthma rates, esp. in inner cities, supposedly 70 percent of kids in los angeles have asthma -- this is injuring and killing kids for profit, pure and simple, because if we put people first, we would have much more aggressive clean air laws and there would be no grandfathering in of polluting plants just to guarantee some private business's profit at the expense of kid's health

but there are a zillion examples

most women who get breast cancer have no known risk factors, we all know that the cause must be pollution of our air and water so every one of these deaths is a murder for the profit of business