Our Children as Victims

Who among us would insist that our children repeat the miseries—real or imagined—of our childhoods? Why, then, do we tolerate other people’s children suffering more than most of us will ever do in a lifetime? The answers lie in a tangle of history, psychology, economics, culture. But the results are plain.

The United States ranks behind eight industrialized countries in child poverty rates. One in five American children lives in poverty. (Although the majority of poor childre...