Third world in my first

As the New York Times is reporting today, one in every six children in the US lives in poverty. Oh, and they are among the most abused children in the world, as well. Our high school grads are tied for 18th place (last place) in literacy among the richest nations, though by the time they graduate from college, they have struggled up to 10th. The US has the highest rate of unintended pregnancy among developed countries, and the highest number of adolescent pregnancies, about 1/3 of which are aborted. They use contraception at a rate lower than most developed nations, and have less access to “emergency contraception.”

Kids are like frogs in an ecosystem. You can tell how well the society is doing by how well their kids are.

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3 Comments

  1. Jia
    Posted 9/26/2003 at 9:45 pm | Permalink

    More children are born poor than rich. Seems rich and city people stop having baby now.
    the environment you grow up within in a large degree decide how well you are doing.

  2. Posted 9/26/2003 at 9:59 pm | Permalink

    Certainly, there’s something to that. The root problem is so many families in the US, about 10%, are poor. That’s in a country that is the richest in the world.

    But it’s more than just that. Of course the problems are tied together, but we have some of the worst violence toward children, the greatest difficulties with drugs, and the worst health care among the developed nations. The gap between poor and rich in the United States is unjust. It is so easy to forget this–to overlook the fact that children starve in the US. Even those who do not, have little hope but to survive.

  3. Posted 9/28/2003 at 5:37 pm | Permalink

    Well, you know that we canadians are much higher on the list. And you know what? It means less than you think. Kids may, by the numbers, be better off than the Americans, but the ones who are living in poverty live with the same shit.

    I wish just being higher up the list meant we were gooder, rather than just slightly less badder.

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