The power of the family to tilt equality hasn’t gone unnoticed, and academics and public commentators have been blowing the whistle for some time. Now, philosophers Adam Swift and Harry Brighouse have felt compelled to conduct a cool reassessment. Swift in particular has been conflicted for some time over the curious situation that arises when a parent wants to do the best for her child but in the process makes the playing field for others even more lopsided. ‘I got interested in this question because I was interested in equality of opportunity,’ he says. ‘I had done some work on social mobility and the evidence is overwhelmingly that the reason why children born to different families have very different chances in life is because of what happens in those families.’ Once he got thinking, Swift could see that the issue stretches well beyond the fact that some families can afford private schooling, nannies, tutors, and houses in good suburbs. Functional family interactions—from going to the cricket to reading bedtime stories—form a largely unseen but palpable fault line between families. The consequence is a gap in social mobility and equality that can last for generations. So, what to do? According to Swift, from a purely instrumental position the answer is straightforward. ‘One way philosophers might think about solving the social justice problem would be by simply abolishing the family. If the family is this source of unfairness in society then it looks plausible to think that if we abolished the family there would be a more level playing field.’ Read the whole article here: http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/new-family-values/6437058
But wait there's more... Reading to your children at bedtime gives them an unfair advantage in life http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...onoured-practice/story-fni0cx12-1227335151442 THE ABC has questioned whether parents should read to their children before bedtime, claiming it could give your kids an “unfair advantage” over less fortunate children. “Is having a loving family an unfair advantage?” asks a story on the ABC’s website. “Should parents snuggling up for one last story before lights out be even a little concerned about the advantage they might be conferring?” The story was followed by a broadcast on the ABC’s Radio National that also tackled the apparently divisive issue of bedtime reading. “Evidence shows that the difference between those who get bedtime stories and those who don’t — the difference in their life chances — is bigger than the difference between those who get elite private schooling and those that don’t,” British academic Adam Swift told ABC presenter Joe Gelonesi. Gelonesi responded online: “This devilish twist of evidence surely leads to a further conclusion that perhaps — in the interests of levelling the playing field — bedtime stories should also be restricted.” (more obscene anti-family nonsense at above url) So the bottom line - Parents who read to their children are evil and are causing inequality.
Good grief! Are there no limits to Leftists' BS? Whatever happened to the notion of "making your own way in the world"?
Now, if "taxes are too high", "government is too big", forget about making your own way in that world and... bitch.
Yet when we suggest blacks' dysfunctional family life holds them back, we are hissed at and called racists? Of course, liberals' solution is never to lift those at the bottom. It is to drag the rest of us down to their level. Fairness you know.
Probably funded with a government grant to find the obvious conclusion. Children raised by loving and caring parents have a advantage over children abandoned by parents and raised by thugs. Who'da thunk it? More white privilege no doubt.
It's important to remember that both sets of parents, the virtuous and the contemptible, are not equally situated financially or educationally. That's the point. Small (much less large) differences in starting conditions lead to large differences in later conditions. So we intervene if we don't want to live a Hobbesian nightmare.
I played in a band where I was the only white member, and watched a whole generation of families destroyed by welfare. And I can't blame the families, because it made more sense on a month by month (maybe not long term) basis to go on welfare and get the wayward undependable music playing travelling man out of the house. And I do mean OUT of the house. If a man got caught there when the welfare lady showed up they risked losing their monthly income. I tried to get the fathers interested in their sons sporting events, and the wives warned me to stop bringing the fathers by the house.
I dunno, the last 240 or so years of this country weren't nightmarish. It's only lately that this crap has come to the surface of discussion. It used to be "Reading to your child at bedtime helps their success in life? Well then I'll start reading to them at bed time (if I haven't already)." Now it's "woe is me, it's unfair that my child doesn't have success because other parents are better parents than I am." What a load of contemptible horseshit. Stop trying to defend everything that comes from the left no matter how asinine. How refreshing would it be if you just went "Yeah, that's pretty stupid."