Honestly, we just don't care that much about children

Baby formula shortages are in headlines across the nation, while the Supreme Court is prepping a decision that states will quickly use to "force" more births. 

I know these two news stories don't connect directly, but the timing is perfect... perfectly awful.

Also in the news lately are analyses that show how well America now treats its senior citizens (well, if you can overlook letting thousands of them die due to them being confined to homes) as opposed to the youngest Americans, particularly children.

In 2019, the 8.9% poverty rate among individuals aged 65 and older was lower than the 9.4% poverty rate among adults aged 18-64, and the 14.4% poverty rate among children under 18 years old. The pandemic may have made all those numbers a bit worse.

I would never claim that getting old is a cake walk, and everyone has their complaints, no matter their age. But we live in a country that is OK with one in every seven children living in poverty. That likely means they don't get enough good food, that they don't have important opportunities to read and learn, and that they are insecure most of the time in terms of housing, education, and nutrition.

The major reason seniors aren't in poverty is the combination of social security and Medicare, of course, not booming 401Ks and pensions. Neither of those social programs is perfect and the long-term financial support for both is in question. But the U.S. has created a sort of "floor" for our oldest citizens and that support pays off in high rates of voting among seniors and better lives for the retired. 

More people vote when they see a direct connection between the government and their ability to eat and pay rent and afford medicine, etc. Children can't vote, and maybe that is the main reason politicians don't spend much time developing programs to greatly reduce suffering of children. Seniors vote. They see clear cause and effect.

You would think that earning the votes of the young parents of those children would be an effective motivator for supportive laws but the birth rate is way down and those who are bearing children tend to be from lower income groups. Many young parents are too overwhelmed to follow politics or vote, so they can be safely ignored... and both parties bear some responsibility for this.

Just as the pandemic revealed all sorts of ugly truths about capitalism, the baby formula shortage is doing the same. Creaky supply lines. Concentration of ownership (there are only three companies that produce most of America's formula supply). Inefficient distribution systems. Greed of store owners and formula manufacturers. People hoarding formula, just as they did with toilet paper early in the pandemic. Strange government regulations that keep European formula from our shores merely due to some labeling issues (European formula is often superior to American, but those darn labels don't quite cut it). Families forced to drive for hours on the hunt for formula while gas continues to rise in cost... while the cost of oil is decreasing (but it's just too complicated for non-oil executives to understand, I guess). 

Owners of production continue to get richer. Rising hourly pay can't keep up with the corporate greed all around us, and people just get frustrated and angry.

They will likely vote for anyone who is not currently in power during the midterms this fall. Their reasoning may be as simple as "hey, it can't get worse, and I need to do SOMETHING to show my pain and anger."

Right now, it's hard to blame people for their irrational voting.