I don’t really understand the theory of action here. You suggest the goal is to save millions of children per year, but these largely die in countries that have ratified the convention. Furthermore, the four policy changes highlighted for the US (farm work, trial as adults, child marriage, corporal punishment) do not seem very closely tied to mortality—why not focus instead of more common killers like pre-term birth? You suggest that helping children more would help ‘free’ mothers from exclusive care of their children, but the four policies mentioned seem mainly neutral on this point, and some of them seem like they would actually make motherhood more difficult for at least a minority of mothers.
Thanks for pointing out where my argument lacks clarity. I can understand the confusion on the points you have made if the primary goal of ratification were benefit to US kids. I am suggesting the primary goal of US ratification is universal consensus, with the benefit to US kids as more of a positive externality.
The same is true about freeing mothers from exclusive care of children; it would not be the primary goal, but a positive externality. An example here would be in a low income country with no universal health care, a mother must make the choice between seeking and paying for health care for her sick child, versus going to work that day, feeding her other children, etc. Universal health care for children would free her from this problem. Actually, as I write, there is much to be said for improving the social protection floor in America, as well.....
You are also right in observing that ratification does not automatically save millions of kids. The reason I suggested it as a “hits based” cause area is as a first step in locking-in in value change toward protecting human rights of agent-less future people. I see it as a step-wise process:
Universal consensus on child rights
Public awareness and pressure on protection of children, greater weight for UN enforcement of child rights, acknowledgement of children as our future, etc
Other forms of improvement of child welfare, such as universal health care for children (working toward saving millions of kids)
Acknowledgement of rights for future people, and possible future treaties
With this information, how might I rephrase the original post to present it more clearly?
I don’t really understand the theory of action here. You suggest the goal is to save millions of children per year, but these largely die in countries that have ratified the convention. Furthermore, the four policy changes highlighted for the US (farm work, trial as adults, child marriage, corporal punishment) do not seem very closely tied to mortality—why not focus instead of more common killers like pre-term birth? You suggest that helping children more would help ‘free’ mothers from exclusive care of their children, but the four policies mentioned seem mainly neutral on this point, and some of them seem like they would actually make motherhood more difficult for at least a minority of mothers.
Thanks for pointing out where my argument lacks clarity. I can understand the confusion on the points you have made if the primary goal of ratification were benefit to US kids. I am suggesting the primary goal of US ratification is universal consensus, with the benefit to US kids as more of a positive externality.
The same is true about freeing mothers from exclusive care of children; it would not be the primary goal, but a positive externality. An example here would be in a low income country with no universal health care, a mother must make the choice between seeking and paying for health care for her sick child, versus going to work that day, feeding her other children, etc. Universal health care for children would free her from this problem. Actually, as I write, there is much to be said for improving the social protection floor in America, as well.....
You are also right in observing that ratification does not automatically save millions of kids. The reason I suggested it as a “hits based” cause area is as a first step in locking-in in value change toward protecting human rights of agent-less future people. I see it as a step-wise process:
Universal consensus on child rights
Public awareness and pressure on protection of children, greater weight for UN enforcement of child rights, acknowledgement of children as our future, etc
Other forms of improvement of child welfare, such as universal health care for children (working toward saving millions of kids)
Acknowledgement of rights for future people, and possible future treaties
With this information, how might I rephrase the original post to present it more clearly?