Personal Note

For some reason the illustrious Harvard professor of Economics, Greg Mankiw, is starting to remind me of my brother, Jared. Maybe it has to do with surprising taste in music that he is both eager and reticent to admit?

Children are People

This quote is from David Balan at Less Wrong:

" I've even heard parents go so far as to say things like: "it's not your room, it's the room inmy house that I allow you to live in." This attitude makes little sense on its own terms, as it suggests that parents would have no legitimate authority over, say, a famous child actor whose earnings paid for the house. Worse, it's a relatively minor manifestation of the broader notion that the child has a fundamentally lower status in the family just for being a child, that they deserve less weight in the family's utility function."


This really strikes a nerve in me. I remember as a teenager being told by my stepfather and mother that no one else (other adults with homes) would be willing to take me in and deal with me, so I should just be glad that they didn't throw me out. I knew that they couldn't legally turn me out on the street, but that fact wasn't much comfort. 


Growing up, I accepted that children counted less than adults - I heard it so often opined that I didn't think to question it. When I look at my two daughters now, I am outraged by the notion.