While you've been thinking about the economy as a national security issue this week, I've been thinking about another kind of security. But they are related of course, as all things are. Some just more obviously and directly than others.
In the fallout of the Sandy Hook shooting and subsequent national grief we've heard a lot about gun control, violent video games, and prescription medications. While the nation's attention has been focused on these arguments, I noticed this info-graphic this week that made me wonder if we aren't making mistakes long, long before we think we are.
Study after study has shown the importance of bonding between parents and children. American moms and dads recognize this, of course, and do the best they can. But this chart makes it pretty clear that parents in the US are struggling to get any compensated time off at one of the most crucial times in the lives of their children. Meanwhile other countries (ones, by the way, that aren't exactly famous for mass shootings by their young men) are investing their resources on the front end of life where it can do the most good. As you have pointed out we prefer to spend exorbitant amounts of money prolonging life a few months at the end (and at what quality?).
Are we doomed to be ever short sighted and reactionary? Is anyone in power taking the long view and acting proactively too much to ask or hope for?
Are we the insolent teenager among civilized nations? It's embarrassing how adult all the other countries seem by comparison sometimes.
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