Parents and their kids are suffering under the weight of the Covid-19 pandemic. A recent study shows significant declines in mental well-being for families with children as the quarantines drag on and other crises loom.
What went wrong?
Our family planning policies, cultural attitudes, corporate advertising, and other factors have historically pushed women to have kids, often before they’re ready, in order grow the economy. These forces not only created overcrowded and unhealthy conditions that helped the pandemic spread and created ecological impacts such as the climate crisis that are setting the stage for the next pandemic.
Who created such policies? Elites at the top of the economic pyramid made these policies to ensure big business a constant stream of cheap labor and hungry consumers. Politicians went along because more taxpayers meant bigger government. The people who pushed population growth, instead of human rights-based policies, are responsible for much the suffering we are experiencing today.
It’s time to turn the tables.
We have a right to the wealth and resources being hoarded by companies, rich families, and bloated governments — those with disproportionate power who are blocking real democracy. That money belongs to us. The best way to use this wealth would be to reverse the unsustainable growth paradigm and replace it with policies that move us toward 1) parental readiness, 2) ensuring every child a fair start in life, and 3) smaller and more sustainable families.
