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Personally I feel if you want to make an impact, you need to provide resources early on when people are growing up and in school. There’s nothing like gaining

Personally I feel if you want to make an impact, you need to provide resources early on when people are growing up and in school. There’s nothing like gaining inspiration because someone you know growing up is doing it. e.g. It’s much easier to go camping for your first time when someone in your life is “the camping person” and can guide you through it. And the earlier you do it, the higher chance that you end up pursuing it. In a lot of impoverished communities, they don’t have as many as those kinds of people. Especially not compared to a well-connected family in a wealthy suburb. I don’t know how you would provide those resources and maybe these big companies already are, but the availability of professionals that young people surround themselves with should not be overlooked.

andrepd 2y ago
Overlooked point but this is very very important. It's hard to understate the importance of good examples and role models while growing up. We are animals which learn essentially by imitation while growing up. We internalise what we see both consciously and subconsciously. It has a massive impact. And in places where good role models are scarce this self-perpetuates. Not discounting the material/economic conditions, obviously.
scelerat 2y ago
It's why day care, head start, school lunch and the like are super important. Even before we get to corporate demographics or college graduation, admittance, and application rates, there are millions of children growing up in poverty in the US. Relatively inexpensive social welfare investments can mitigate many of the worst effects, even for those who don't decide to become software engineers.
- blindriver 2y ago
  None of this matters if the children grow up in a single-parent household. Keeping a two parent household has an outsized influence on the children's development and needs to be a cultural shift in our society.
  - ketzo 2y ago
    It can absolutely matter, and in fact it is all the more important in a single-parent household. You’re right that single vs. two parent household is the largest contributing factor. You’re wrong that it means that no other factors matter at all.
  - scelerat 2y ago
    "single parent households" are precisely why these levers are important: among other things, they help reduce the disadvantages some kids have due to being raised by an impoverished single parent, and gives those kids a leg up in a way which will foster more stable home life and less likelihood of themselves becoming single parents.
    - drewbeck 2y ago
      Not only that, but more resources and more stability help foster successful relationships. If you want more two-parent households, make it a lot easier to have and care for a child.

andrepd 2y ago

Overlooked point but this is very very important. It's hard to understate the importance of good examples and role models while growing up. We are animals which learn essentially by imitation while growing up. We internalise what we see both consciously and subconsciously. It has a massive impact. And in places where good role models are scarce this self-perpetuates. Not discounting the material/economic conditions, obviously.

scelerat 2y ago

It's why day care, head start, school lunch and the like are super important. Even before we get to corporate demographics or college graduation, admittance, and application rates, there are millions of children growing up in poverty in the US. Relatively inexpensive social welfare investments can mitigate many of the worst effects, even for those who don't decide to become software engineers.

blindriver 2y ago
None of this matters if the children grow up in a single-parent household. Keeping a two parent household has an outsized influence on the children's development and needs to be a cultural shift in our society.
- ketzo 2y ago
  It can absolutely matter, and in fact it is all the more important in a single-parent household. You’re right that single vs. two parent household is the largest contributing factor. You’re wrong that it means that no other factors matter at all.
- scelerat 2y ago
  "single parent households" are precisely why these levers are important: among other things, they help reduce the disadvantages some kids have due to being raised by an impoverished single parent, and gives those kids a leg up in a way which will foster more stable home life and less likelihood of themselves becoming single parents.
  - drewbeck 2y ago
    Not only that, but more resources and more stability help foster successful relationships. If you want more two-parent households, make it a lot easier to have and care for a child.