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Personal responsibility of the parent sure, but the child can't exactly ask to not be born.

• erikpukinskis 8y ago
  Also, is it personal responsibility if the state has put the parent in a situation where they will be systematically stripped of resources?
  • EpicEng 8y ago
    >Also, is it personal responsibility if the state has put the parent in a situation where they will be systematically stripped of resources? That is hardly the only problem. Society isn't at fault for all of the ills of low income areas.
    • mikepurvis 8y ago
      This is such a strange sentiment to me. Surely as a society there are many situations for which we take responsibility without assuming guilt?
      • swasheck 8y ago
        I do wish that this comment could serve as the banner comment for this post. It's such an immature response to assume that because you're taking responsibility to resolve or address something that it implies that you're to blame for it having occurred in the first place. This mentality is pervasive in the elementary and middle schools that my kids attend and it's unfortunate that adults haven't grown out of it. Thank you for your comment. True leadership says that we need to work toward fixing the problem, while selfish ambition says, "not my fault, not my problem."
        • mixedCase 8y ago
          > True leadership says that we need to work toward fixing the problem, while selfish ambition says, "not my fault, not my problem." The sad reality is that in the other hand, thanks to the ever present tragedy of the commons, there are selfish people that take advantage of this thinking "someone will fix it, doesn't matter if I contribute to the problem for my own benefit".
          • swasheck 8y ago
            I understand and appreciate your perspective on this. However, I'm not certain that those of us who are "haves" or who are privileged in some way can put the majority of the burden on those who are "have-nots" to simply stop what they're doing and wait for change. If the goal of our lives is to protect what we have, then I have a feeling that we're going to die with unfulfilled lives - we just may not know it until it's too late. [edit]typo: "doing" -> "going"
      • EpicEng 8y ago
        I didn't mean to say people who aren't directly responsible should shrug their shoulders and move on. I have this discussion with my wife often. How the hell do you help kids who have little to no support structure at home? Our federal and local governments often make it harder for these people, and I'm all for fixing that (with my notion of what a "fix" looks like of course.) That's not the entire story though; how do you make fathers stick around? How do you solve for poverty? You don't, at least, we have never been able to do so, and now you get into philosophical territory about whether or not that's even possible. My issue is that I have no idea how to fix it. Pumping more money into low income schools is not a cure-all. Don't get me wrong, it can help, but we have many cases where it made little to no difference because teachers and iPads can't do it all. Anyways, that's a lot of rambling. My point is that I don't think the sentiment of "these people are oppressed" (which is what I assume most mean when they say it's "society's fault") is correct. It's far more complicated than that.
    • stuckinarut 8y ago
      Society is entirely responsible for that.