The
destructive effects of socialism on children and families in Sweden.
"The rise of the welfare state can be written as the steady transfer of
the "dependency" function from the family to the state; from persons
tied together by blood, marriage or adoption to persons tied to public
employees. The process began in Sweden in the mid-19th century, through
bureaucratic projects that began dismantling the bonds between parents
and their children. In classic pattern, the first assertion of state
control over children came in the 1840s, with the passage of a mandatory
school attendance law."
The nose of the camel.
"The natural economy of the household, and the value that children had
brought their parents—be it as workers in the family enterprise or as
an 'insurance policy' for old age—was stripped away. Parents were still
left with the costs of raising the children, but the economic gain they
would eventually represent had been seized by "society," meaning the
bureaucratic state.
The predictable result of this change, as an economist of the "Gary
Becker School" would tell you, would be a diminished demand for
children, and this is exactly what occurred in Sweden. Starting in the
late 1800s, Swedish fertility went into free-fall and by 1935, Sweden
had the lowest birthrate in the world, below the zero-growth level where
a generation just managed to replace itself."
Now the same is happening all over the western world.
"The standard theory of demographic transition has long been that this
fall in the birthrate was the necessary, inevitable consequence of
modern industrialization: that the incentives of a capitalist economy
disrupt traditional family relations. While it is true that the
traditional family structure faces a new kind of stress in industrial
society, more recent work suggests that the greater challenge—in
fact—derives from the growth of the state."
No doubt.
"Looking at the experience of many nations, Princeton University
demographer Norman Ryder traces the central common cause of fertility
decline to the introduction of mass public education. "Education of the
junior generation is a subversive influence," he says. "Political
organizations, like economic organizations, demand loyalty and attempt
to neutralize family particularism. There is a struggle between the
family and the state for the minds of the young," where the mandatory
state school serves as "the chief instrument for teaching citizenship,
in a direct appeal to the children over the heads of their parents.""
Exactly.
"Confirming the universal validity of the Swedish example, Ryder adds
that while mandatory education raises the cost to parents of children,
bans on child labor further reduce their economic value. Moreover, a
state system of social security cuts the natural bonds between
generations of a family in still another way, leaving the state as the
new locus of first loyalty."
It's about time I found an essay that explained this other than mine.
"Appeals to liberty and family autonomy evoked equally biting responses.
The Myrdals charged that the "false individualistic desire" by parents
for the "freedom" to raise their own children had an unhealthy origin:
"...much of the tiresome pathos which defends 'individual freedom' and
'responsibility for one's own family,' is based on a sadistic
disposition to extend this 'freedom' to an unbound and uncontrolled
right to dominate others.""
I think he had it backwards.
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