Stop Using Hazel

There's a billboard that I've been seeing lately with some frequency. I kept meaning to get a photo of it to use as an illustration some time when I wanted to talk about how problems in our world are structural or systemic, rather than individual.

Well, I finally got a photo of it, so here it is:


It turns out I got the photo just in time to be paired with this stat from former New York Times labor reporter Steve Greenhouse, which he drew from Forbes:

Since the pandemic began, total U.S. billionaire wealth has risen twice as much as the government paid in stimulus checks to 150 million Americans.

Billionaires' wealth rose from $2.9 trillion to $3.5 trillion as $6.5 trillion in household wealth disappeared.

So sure, the promise inside Hazel is greater than the poverty around her in some metaphorical sense, but this headline is insulting.

ChildFund, I note, works in the U.S. as well as countries across the around the world. If our billionaires paid taxes instead of lobbying against them (when they're not offshoring and hiding their money), maybe children wouldn't have to rely on charities like ChildFund to be able to grow up healthy, educated, and safe enough to realize their promise.