This applies across the board, as evidence points to a predominantly unhealthy population in America. Dayna Bowen Matthew asked us to think about what these trends mean for structurally disadvantaged and vulnerable communities. So, while it might be true that many Americans are unhealthy, it has disproportionately adverse effects on Black and Brown communities.
She pointed to the way structural inequalities—including, wage , wealth , and homeownership —contribute to unhealthy populations and make certain groups more vulnerable to shocks in the system—including, for example, a pandemic. Addressing the health issues in the American middle class requires a racially sensitive view as the disparities in social and economic institutions translate to disparities in health outcomes. Lastly, David Williams and Brad Wilcox explored the changing dynamics of American families and how a stable environment promotes a strong middle class and aids social mobility.
David Williams emphasized the overall importance of community formation, rather than specific family formation, as the most consequential factor in upward mobility. He discussed the benefits of area effects, and most specifically, the presence of two-parent households.
However, he argued that marriage is not necessarily the driving, mechanical factor at play. Instead, marriage or two-parent households reflect other important factors, such as neighborhood cohesion or social capital. In this way, the nuclear family, while obviously important, is not the end-all-be-all for policy work. Community relationships matter just as much.
As weeks of quarantine pile up, Kelly Bates, the Kinder Academy assistant director, told me that she thrives on being busy, and is having trouble not falling into despair. Neighbors walked by wearing masks, and Bates waved hello. Wearing sheepskin slippers and a pair of green sweatpants, she perched atop the concrete steps of her front stoop. I stayed at the bottom, some twenty feet away. Danielle poked a red plastic wand through the crack in the door, and blew soap bubbles, which drifted down the steps and over their small plot of overgrown lawn.
When I saw her, Bates was holding off from taking food. She was refusing to let herself think about the future, since worrying did her no good in the day she was in. She had stopped watching the news and was staying away from social media. The rumors made her worry about whether Kinder Academy would survive. I miss going to work. I miss seeing my babies. She was concerned about the children. When day-care centers close, it also affects the families. Quarantined together and separated from the outside world, many families face an increased risk of abuse.
Families have also lost access to nutrition programs. Before the pandemic, Martha Hackett, a retired social worker who raises four children, could count on them eating at least one meal a day at school or at Kinder Academy.
The absence of child care also makes it nearly impossible for essential workers who are parents, especially single mothers, to do their jobs. Dominique Nelson, a teacher whose ten-year-old usually attends a Kinder Academy aftercare program, has been struggling to teach remotely with her child at home. She often works doubles, from 11 P.
During the pandemic, Logan has been leaving her two small children, one of whom has been diagnosed with autism, with a niece, who was visiting her from Jamaica and was stranded in Philadelphia when the borders closed. Spina decided to reopen the centers virtually: teachers who wanted to return would spend their days doing online training.
The center would offer thirty minutes a day of virtual interaction for preschoolers and fifteen minutes a day for babies and toddlers. Spina felt that more screen time would be developmentally inappropriate. Teachers would read books to children and talk to them and their families online.
Spina was happy that she could offer her employees a chance to come back, but worried that, when the money ran out in two months, she would have to lay them off again, and they would be at the end of long lines for unemployment benefits. What about the effects of all this assistance on an-already high federal debt? That must be a concern over the longer run. But now is not the time to worry about it. What needs to be understood is that a failure to act quickly and boldly now could produce a much bigger decline that would permanently harm both households and the economy and prolong the pain.
We need to understand that temporary deficits to save the economy are very different from those that are permanent because we have more government than we are willing to pay for. Given the economic uncertainties about how long and how deep any recession will be, and the inevitable political squabbles over how much and what kind of assistance to provide, the best approach would be to condition the amount and timing of any assistance on the unemployment rate or some other metric of economic health.
Such triggers help to reduce the need for political haggling and provide some assurance to financial markets and households that help will be provided if and when it is needed—but only if it is needed. While automatic triggers reduce the ability of policymakers to tailor assistance in ways that get it to just the right places, they also limit the ability of special interests to affect the process. They reassure citizens that their fate will not be determined by a much-distrusted political class.
In addition to worrying about household incomes, there should be a focus on assets as well. One way to weather the loss of wages or self-employment income is to draw down savings. But the middle class is increasingly living paycheck to paycheck. In this context, what is needed is not just an infusion of cash to help support both families and the economy through this period, but a willingness on the part of creditors to defer the repayment of student loans, credit card debt, mortgage payments, and the like.
Requiring people to keep current may simply drive them into bankruptcy and further undermine their ability to pay over the longer term. Small businesses and the self-employed especially need this kind of forbearance if they are to remain viable once the crisis has passed. The American middle class may contain a few deadbeats or others who will take advantage of such forbearance to cheat the system, but the vast majority will repay their debts.
For similar reasons, states must be made whole. They are on the front lines of the crisis and unlike the federal government, they are required to balance their budgets and cannot borrow unlimited amounts. A higher federal matching rate for Medicaid expenditures, for example, is a top priority.
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