This world just keeps on getting weirder! Today, I found myself sobbing with relief over a bill introduced by the man I voted against in 2012.
Why should I trust you, tho??
Saagar Enjeti over at The Hill explains how Mitt Romney’s Child Allowance Plan “Would almost single-handedly cut child poverty to the lowest level in decades.”
He also reminds us that the United States is facing a real fertility crisis – My generation is not having enough kids to replace ourselves. It seems many Americans don’t understand why this is important.
“When I praised this publicly, I was hit with unsurprisingly skeptical takes around, ‘Why do we even need more kids…? Doesn’t this discriminate against people who don’t have kids?”
“The answer to the last question is, Yes. Frankly, I’m OK with that.” It’s really weird to hear a self-described conservative say something so refreshing.
“That’s probably why I’ve never been for a Universal Basic Income and have always favored policies like this … ‘What exactly makes you conservative, Saagar?’ You’re lookin’ at it right here.“
But when Saagar is talking about kids, I hear mothers – The women who will almost inevitably be caring for those kids. And while I firmly believe if you don’t want kids, you shouldn’t have any, no mainstream source is saying otherwise.
But what if you do? Why did I have to give up everything else just to be a decent mom? And why is creating the next generation seen as inherently conservative??
“I don’t think government policy or our culture should be centered around maximizing individual liberty and choice. I think it should be centered around making it easy as possible to fulfill the most basic task of a civilization – Which is replacing itself and producing prosperity for the current and future generation.“
I admit this had never occurred to me – UBI would be a fantastic development for women, but this shift in emphasis is eye-opening. Those in love with Free Market Capitalism claim this as their goal, too. And yet, Saagar eloquently describes the situation where we actually find ourselves:
This damn thing is so out of date! How am I ever gonna get it fired up again??
“Nothing about our consumerist culture is maximizing these goals. It is the opposite of conservative when your supposedly free trade and market have created a culture where it’s cheaper to eat crappy food, buy plastic stuff and watch TV every day, rather than have children and get married.“
Saagar is using a definition of conservative I disagree with. I stick with the first definition, ‘Averse to change or innovation, holding traditional values.‘
Saagar is using the second, ‘Favoring free enterprise, private ownership and socially traditional ideas.‘
For one thing, I disagree that Marriage&Family still qualifies as our tradition in this country. Eating crap food, buying junk and watching TV is the new tradition. My parents’ generation seems to know little else.
Divorce has been common for 50 years. Working moms, 40. Single, working moms, 30. It’s been at least a generation since single-income families were the norm, Mom waiting with snacks after school. Arguably, two.
We may not see ourselves this way, but numbers don’t lie like TV does. America seems to finally be in the mood for a good, hard look in the mirror.
“People don’t even want to watch TV all day, or just buy stuff. They’re simply responding to the incentives within the economic system … Surveys of Americans show that … people want more kids but aren’t having them. Clearly, it’s too hard to have kids.“
That’s right – Millennials don’t actually want to be cultural hitmen. We want the same things every other generation did, but we are collateral damage of the broken system we live in.
Is it cold out here, or is it me?
“What’s the barrier to kids in our culture? It’s money. It’s healthcare. All the externalities. Having to leave your job, stuff like that. So, the solution is simple – Make it more economically viable to have children! It’s the simplest solution on the planet, that many on the Reformist Right have identified for nearly a decade.“
This is also new to me – What in the world is the Reformist Right?? Wouldn’t that make them… Progressive??
“And yet, somehow, the guy whose terrible defeat and policy ideas in 2012 who sparked this movement is the person who seems to have embraced it.“
I laughed bitterly at this. In 2012, Mitt Romney looked like an off-brand animatronic JFK, except Republican. And Mormon.
Most leftist thought was still preoccupied with Barack Obama, the disillusionment of his 2nd term and the fallout of that still in the future. Would Romney have fixed these problems eight years ago? Maybe not, but he’s proven himself to be a man of principle where so many in his party just chase power. It’s been quite a learning experience to watch.
Saagar shoots down arguments against Romney’s plan with satisfying enthusiasm. “…They say that it would encourage government dependency and unemployment which would, conversely, encourage a retreat from marriage and the labor force in poorer communities. It’s not an unreasonable concern.“
“But … it may be moot. Romney’s plan only phases out at the highest income threshold, meaning there isn’t a so-called ‘work disincentive’ as there were in previous iterations of American welfare.“
This system would involve almost every family in the country, almost all of us would qualify for the income supplements. It wouldn’t just be helping those people over there.
“And … we don’t really have time to quibble with these fights from 1996.” YES!!! I’ve been watching politics since 1992, and the lack of progress has been truly devastating. Let them take their absolutist Boomer nonsense with them when they go!
“We are literally in a massive fertility crisis, which is only going to get worse after the Coronavirus depression, the social isolation, and the immense disruption to our lives … Demographics is destiny in only one way – When your population declines, your country gets worse.“
I remember when all this was a mall!
You think the system is broken now? Imagine after the tax base dries up!
“Somehow, [Democrats] have memed themselves into becoming deficit hawk Republicans. The Democratic plan would actually diminish the size of the benefit for Americans making more than $75,000 … By making it more targeted, you, of course, open yourself up to political attack in the future.“
This brings me back to who and what qualifies as ‘conservative.‘ In the US, the so-called conservative party are the ones who use Jesus for war propaganda and racism to stay popular. They are almost as likely to be secretly gay as fiscally corrupt. Even the truly conservative – Those who adhere to the old values of Sexism, Racism, Homophobia and Xenophobia – have about given up on them.
As for the ‘liberals,’ I have covered them pretty extensively several times. That monicker is more ironic these days.
“By phasing this in and out based on income, [it would] become more politically vulnerable to attack than a Mitt Romney universal plan … Do you want this to be … targeted as welfare?“
It’s almost as if they don’t really want to solve anything. As if keeping things tangled up and Americans afraid and back-biting helps them get away with shit…
OK hon, you got that fire extinguisher??
…And if you don’t think things are confused, the 2nd definition of ‘liberal’ is, ‘a political and social policy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise.‘
Not too far-removed from ‘conservative’s’ ‘free enterprise, private ownership and socially traditional ideas.‘
Individual rights, civil liberties and democracy are literally the tradition the United States is founded in. With definitions like these, is it any wonder we can’t keep anything straight?
We have so many labels, but I’m finding them more and more meaningless. A society that’s good for mothers would be good for all women, and even most men.
Romney’s plan amounts to paying me for mothering, a for-real dream come true! It’s my full-time job, on-call 24/7, 365. I cried today because I had given up on official recognition of this.
Mitt Romney being the biggest feminist in Congress makes me dizzy.
Recent Comments