U.S. has some of the world's worst rates of infant death, teenage pregnancy and child poverty

Their own Muslim fundamentalist governments treat them with such disrespect and hate, so they run here and to Europe as fast as they can.
Then, when they find so much is free, they start complaining that it just isn't enough, and they want more (of course without ever using dirty words like, "thank you").
In their own countries, they'd have their tongues pulled out.

Personal responsibility. The degree to which Americans today expect Government to step in and make their lives easier just absolutely gravels my ass. Government should not make their lives HARDER, either (within reason, of course, the country needs to be defended and the roads need to be paved, and our mentally ill need to be treated...taxes are the way we share that burden). But I have had so many conversations lately with people who seem to think that the role of government is to ensure that they never have to work too hard or too long that it just makes me ill.

You do what you gotta do. If one job -- even a full-time one -- is not sufficient to pay the bills for sending your kid to the doctor or save up for a down payment on a house or save for your kids college education...you go out and get a second job!If that STILL isn't enough...get a third! Wash dishes, bus tables, clean toilets...hell, VOLUNTEER someplace and then work your ass off until they feel guilty about not paying you or your hard work comes to the attention of someone who WILL pay you

You don't sit on your ass and whine about how the government doesn't CARE enough about you! Government doesn't exist to ensure that you achieve personal fulfillment. It exists to provide things like common defense, major infrastructure (highways, water and sewer systems, etc) , social safety net programs to keep people from starving on the streets, etc.

Sorry if that seems a little strident, but I have had a great number of conversations with young people lately that just leave my jaw hanging open. Its like they WILL not accept a job that is not in their chosen field, in a location of their choice, with hours that are acceptable to them...and so forth...which would be OK if they were willing to accept the fact that this means unemployment. But most seem outraged that "government" is not doing more to help them get all of those things!

This news is just perfect for Mr. Obama to run around and show the other countries how terrible the United States is.
Ooooh, the liberals are going to eat this up and dance, but only whiule Mr. obama goes to every country and continues to apologize for our terrible country.
Now Mr. Obama and the whole Chicagto gang and Amber can have a celebration party to tell the world that America is terrible and must be changed to move far away from capitalism, which only lasted for a mere 234 years BO. BO = Before Obama.

...........

You are correct, soberwood. But these touchy feely liberals do this because it makes them feel good about themselves. See we're actually doing something about it. Not the right way but, WTF. You know throw more money at it will eventually work.
They don't care that we've enslaved people by providing to them and their kids what they should be providing. It keeps a certain level of poverty where the upper class wants them, depending on the government.

I do agree with what you're saying, but do you have an alternative? Whether we "reward personal irresponsibility" or not, we have these little kids who are doing without. What do we do about them? I have a hard time with the idea that we should let them starve just because their parents are looking for a free ride. They had no control over whether or not they were born to irresponsible parents.

Are you all blind ! What we have here is just another example of the result of over forty years of the war on poverty. We have spent government money on housing, health care, education , transportation, and family causes for years and the problems increase. So the answer to most of you is to spend more ? You are nuts ! When you reward personal irresponsibility why are you thinking people would become responsible ! Most of you are insane. Doing the same thing again and again expecting differeent results is one definiton of insanity!

Oh, very much in agreement there!

Good points nurse, nut I would like to add that the breakdown of family structure has a lot to do with these problems as well. Without proper parental guidance children tend to run amok..... Even within intact families both parents are working full time or more just to get by..... IMHO it leaves the parents "out of the loop"

You know what's sad, my sister told me several years ago the act of fellatio had become the trend at grade school level. THE GRADE SCHOOL level!
I think back about the Alana Morisette song with the reference to 'going down'... in the movies, President Clinton saying he didn't have sex because that isn't me having sex.'
My school teacher sister and I argued regarding if oral sex is actually sex.
She said it's not, and I said my collegiate dictionary says: 2. Sexual intercourse is anything involving genital contact other than insertion of the penis into the vagina.
So if you think a 'BJ' isn't sex.......how easy is it to move to the next level?
If you know about Sodom and Gomorrah that's where we are today. Just watch reality TV or Jerry Springer... those people are oh, so NOT normal...but teens and tweens see this as wild and free. Like the 60-70's "let it all hang out" "If it feels good do it" we started this trend and need to get a grip on it and slowly with acurate education get the moral/ethical self respect back to our young ones.
If the scare of AIDS, pregnancy and genital herpes or cervical CA didn't stop them we have got to find a way. through TV, ads with the products they buy, school posters and education, subliminal musical messages ....just hit them with an all out safety front.......something!

Well, not only is the good US of A lacking in supporting our own issues such as the health and well being of the younger generation in terms of those affected by malnutrition and poverty. We also are falling way behind in terms of education in general. The united States has poor math/science scores and is even behind some smaller nations with these poor test scores. I hate to say it, but its time the United States stop meddling in other countries affairs for awhile and we need to focus on fixing our own for a change. I'm in favor of becoming an isolationist nation for awhile at least until some of our own issues aren't left in the shadows like in the Bush era when the stupid terror color codes seemed to run our lives.

America, assbackwardness at its best!
just look at the principles that the United States was built on, and how it obtained them, and you will have all the answers you need to how something like this could happen in a country with such great wealth. not the principles they teach you in elementary school, but the 'occult' foundations of the good ole USA!

Public policy needs to change. EVERYONE should be held equally responsible for their actions. Not one or the other. As stated, it takes two to tango. When it comes to single parenting it should all start on a level playing feild with necessity of evidence to deviate from anything less than 50/50.......

The one thing we are fighting in trying to prevent these problems, is the states own budget. More children in poverty means more state intervention and therefore more SS Title IV funding.....

Everyone that owns property pays school taxes every year, public education is not free. Trust me everyone in my family pays for it.
People that own a little piece of property are being sucked dry by ridiculous taxes.

That's what happens when a country spends over half it's budget on the military. Keeping the empire afloat must be more important than keeping it's citizens afloat.

Education in high school is FREE. It does not cost a penny. They have sex education all over the country.

Why make this into a "poor and no education" issue?

This is an ignorance problem. This is also a stubborn problem. It is also a problem when some young mothers wanted to get pregnant on purpose.

There is no one person to point fingers at. There is no one reason to point fingers....it is a combination of many factors.
There are many problems in society. Sex ed, health care, assigning responsibility, etc.

Sex ed is something that really needs to be taught openly in schools and not shied away from because of some outdated moral issues.

Both parents now have to work just to pay the light bill, let alone have a lot of time to spend at PTA meetings and working with their children.
So what is the answer to that problem?

Health care would benefit the working poor tremendously. If they could keep their children healthy, at least in that respect, it would make a difference.

So...where is the answer? What is the answer?
We're all in this life together. So how do we, as a people, as a society, help those that really need it?

And the trend will continue. There will be NO MIDDLE CLASS. Just the "them's that have and them's that don't."
The younger generation are unindated with the media's 'everyone's having sex with each other'. And that's sophisticated, as long as you have Manolo FMP's and a Coach bag.
You don't have to eat, stay skinny.
Go to the free clinic to get your Depo-Estrdiol shot. Which causes you never to have periods. (unnatural!)
Or just have babies and struggle all your life.
The ones that try for a career: many females prevent pregnancy when they are at the best time to have healthy babies only to have to spent much money and time trying to get pregnant later on?
Or the ones that get pregnant without planning and don't follow doctors orders and eat and drink garbage thinking the vitamin from the clinic will work.
I used to council young ladies on diet to prevent Pre-eclampsia and other preventable pregnancy problems.
We take care of the mom then take the newborn to a daycare clinic so mom can finish school, pay for her and the babies care, meds, and food even help with rent and con-ed.
So what else are we going to do? more government help?
We help mom so she can buy a car to get a job we've trained her for and dressed her for. We've taught her basic nutrition and house keeping in her home one on one.
And we need to do more?
She'll still be on Medicaid if the system goes through so what's the difference?

ask the pro life people how much child support they personaly would pay for these children and you get a "responsibility" lecture instead. the teenage mothers need mentors not surveys.sunlight on our holier than thou attitude toward the european countries is a good thing.

THe USA lends money to countries with strings attached. How much money are they sending to countries who do not wish to do business with the large multinational companies, none.

The USA the wealthiest most giving country in the world
helps others all the time but will not help its own people
that need it the most,sucks but its true.If the filthy rich would lend a hand and give to local programs things would change slowly stop helping countries that hate us anyways and keep it here for a while.The billions we give to foreign nations could end poverty here. Its not just children but they come first.

The European countries they mention with lower rates than the US, don't they tend to have lower overall birth rates. And with "free" public health care, do they get free abortion on demand? That would lower the birthrate. Not passing judgment on anyone, just wondering.

And the trend will continue. There will be NO MIDDLE CLASS. Just the "them's that have and them's that don't."

Trolls Trolls Trolls. 99 no one can be that ignorant and illiterate and still capable of utilizing a computer to comment. Lioness I teach my girls to take care of themselves you seem to be looking to play the oppressed victims card.

This is 2009 and this is the USA. How much much ignorance and even stupidity is there? I mean there are really kids on this continent who think that you put it in and then and no one will get pregnant.
ALL those sex ed classes need to teach for only one day every month, not for fifteen days a month. They should just simply say that the myth that the first time will never make you pregnant, is false. And they should also teach that 80% of all condoms have leaks. That is it. Why are there so many teen pregnancies? What a total disaster our educational system is.
The sex ed teachers are too busy trying to teach too many things. These kids are not doctors. Just teach them the extremely urgent points about avoiding pregnancies. I am so upset!!!!
Which high school kid put together that poor excuse for the picture of poverty?

Why would the state be spending any money on children under the age of 6. Parents have to be more responsible for their children or simply don`t have them.

is anyone else horrified by this line: "Young women need to learn to wait to finish their education, not have a kid at 18 or 19. And it is these poor, unwed mothers having most of the babies in the U.S."?

WTF? last i checked there has to be a naked penis for there to be a baby. i'm so sick and tired of birth control being exclusively a woman's responsibility. maybe if there weren't so many 20 something man-whores indiscriminately humping around without consequence, there would be less young unwed mothers, and less hungry children.
GREG KELLER, you are an asshole.

What happen to America?
For the past 30 years we became a country based only on corporate profits and corrupt government run by lobbyists.

Our family values are nearly nonexistent, there is no incentive for healthy family union, children health and education is ineffective, people are in a big race for the "biggest victim" title, there is absolutely no unity, no solidarity.

The result is "U.S. has some of the world's worst rates of infant death, teenage pregnancy and child poverty".

In the USA the rich get richer and the poor get prison-here in Vancouver WA the unemployment rate is above 20% in our neighborhood we have several families living together in rented apartments .....all related who have been evicted from somewhere else...up the street 11 people (6 kids) in a 900 sq foot one bedroom apt....homless people everywhere, every fwy onramp has somebody with his/her cardboard sign....we are now a third world country!!!! and no end in sight.

U S A! U S A! U S A!
I'm sure with just a little more help from the Republican party we can make it all the way to NUMBER 1!!!

Yes, that photo is very convincing. Blue-eyed, blond-haired, well-fed kid with some dirt smudged on his face and an empty bowl. Very accurate reflection of reality.