OUR FAMILY MONEY MADNESS


The modern, Western family balance sheet short changes children, the wage earn(s) and the seniors.

The wage earner(s) short change themselves by their lifestyle of the latest home, cars, toys and big holidays. The cost of this drives the wage earner(s) on high speed commutes to fast paced jobs with long hours. The costs of the mortgage, taxes and energy are chronic concerns and sources of distraction from family life.

This leaves children short changed by lack of parent attention. The substitutes are special school and day care plus electronic gadgets to keep them occupied. When they develop emotional and social problems, the parent(s) go for medical solutions, usually in pill form.

The seniors are short changed because they are put out to pasture. The energetic ones get hobbies; the others get depressed, busy at silly things and get sick. This is driving up the cost of health care which the wage earners pay for in higher taxes.

The banishment of the seniors is a particularly dumb strategy. Here are folks with a wealth of life and children rearing experiences being told they are not needed in the family decisions and the care of children. This banishment is costly because it negates the worth of seniors and requires other households with all their expenses.

This is dumb because the wage earner(s) hasn’t graduated from adolescence. Dependent children learn to be independent in teenage. They are supposed to graduate to interdependence - with the savvy to lead family teamwork. So they are still trying to prove their independent worth instead of ensuring the worth of the children and the seniors. Since this has been going on for some time, our streets are not safe from a growing crop of maladjusted young people.

No wonder the recent UNICEF study finding that national financial well-being is at the cost of child well-being.

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