Who'd a thunk it? Poverty's bad for babies and children. At least that's what the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies tells us. They are asking their members to address the poverty issue among their patients and at the national level.
Of course many of us already knew that being poor is a problem that no one wants to share. Look at this piece by Dr. Perri Klass MD and then we can talk about why the rich need to be in this conversation with us.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/poverty-as-a-childhood-disease/?smid=pl-share
As Dr Klass suggests, just saying to a poor mother "Jimmy needs a better exercise program" will not pay for his after school Karate. Nor will a nutrition class help poor families afford better than the calorie high fast food that leads to poor health and obesity.
When we let the well-to-do off the hook by believing that it's not their fault that most of us are poor, we do them and us a disservice. They lose because they get by without paying the full cost of the government they demand. It's not a financial cost but a moral one. They know that the poor suffer and that they have the power to alleviate that suffering. The poor suffer in physical and psychological ways. Our children make do without adequate nutrition and go to schools that are underfunded and are otherwise not nearly as good as the schools of the rich.
When we think of solutions we run up against the gigantic power and propaganda machines the major corporations and their friends in congress. An individual can feel like a midget when you go up against these forces. There are ways to fight back; however. We already have the pediatricians on our side. That's several thousand well paid helpers. We also have the possibility of organizing other groups such as school teachers and others in organized labor groups.
In spite of what the US Supreme Court says, most corporations aren't people and are hard to move, especially when their profits are at stake. There are ways to move them however. Shareholders have access to their boards and officers. Boycotts also work as do protests. They do take time and sometimes have to be used in concert. Remember when all else fails there's always the revolution.
