It's Hard to Make it in America

"How the United States Stopped Being the Land of Opportunity."  That is the title of a depressing article in the November/December issue of  'Foreign Affairs', by Lane Kenworthy, professor of sociology and political science at the University of Arizona.  It chronicles the demise of the middle class, the emergence of low-income families and the havoc the latter has reaped.

The biggest problem seems to be the lack of resources given low-income families in the US. 

"In Canada, for instance, a family with two children receives an annual allowance of around $3,000, and low-income families with two children might receive more than $6,000.  The United States has only a weaker version of the benefit, the Child Tax Credit, which doles out a maximum of just $1,000 a year per child.

Oh, I forgot, we're communists.  Supporting the poor and our "free" health-care system prove it.   

"Fewer children in the United States grow up with both biological parents than in any other affluent country. Given the difficulties of altering home life, improving schools remains the United States' main tool for assisting less-advantaged children.  During summer vacation, the cognitive abilites of children in low-income families tend to regress, relative to those of their more advantaged peers.  In other words, these children would lag even further behind if they never attended school."

Left unsaid is the fact that Black Americans skew the statistics.  Canada does not have a "black" reality.  While we share many cultural values, we have very different societies.