The second of many Das Racist songs I heard in the summer of 2012 was the title track to their album ‘Relax’. Subsequently, it became a mainstay in my audiophiliac playlist #dopetracks. Kool A.D.’s verse is a classic in the Bay Area representer’s catalog, if not for the rapid flow at the end of his verse, then for his musing of his then twenty-seven year-old mindset: “I’m not too sure if I should clue in the little kids or if I’m too foolish to move with the bigger fish: Why it gotta be those two and not some other shit? Take me to the mothership.”

That’s right. Kool A.D. would rather be abducted by aliens than stay here. He doubts his ability to stand up to the challenge of adulthood, yet views the children around him, foreseeing their impending loss of innocence and the bleak prospects for their future world. He’s not confident in his ability to move up in this not-so brave new world while still giving something back to generations after. He has every right to be concerned. The world may be alive, but it certainly is not well, despite the ever-chanted overture of parents, politicians, and preachers.

As a fellow Millennial, it’s hard to disagree. Back in 1997, Mr. Mailman assigned my fourth grade class the Bette Bao Lord novel In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. Set in 1947, it follows Shirley Temple Wong, a young Chinese immigrant in Brooklyn. What I remember most is Shirley’s age. Having spent her early childhood in China, where they still used the Han calendar in lieu of the Gregorian calendar, she accidentally skips from third to fifth grade when registering for PS 8 in DUMBO. You’d think a teacher could pick out a child that’s clearly younger than the rest. Still, Shirley did all right for herself. She received high marks in school. She learned how to play stickball. She earned herself the nickname ‘Jackie Robinson’ for not snitching to a teacher. The two-year difference between Shirley and her classmates didn’t rattle her social development or diminish her educational experience.

Today, Shirley’s grade switch would end up a Youtube-famous local news story turned Buzzfeed list. It would anger child psychologists. According to them, she’d have ongoing identity and focus issues. She’d be moving back in with her parents after college, unemployed, considering life as a cam girl or temp. Child-advocacy think tanks would write case studies about her and education reform groups would lobby state legislatures for more comprehensive registration form submission strategies in schools. School administrators would send out new forms to every family or launch online registrars. The President would put forth his No Child Skipped Ahead bill. What barely affected, and probably enriched an eight year-old girl in 1947 would turn into another cause within society’s love affair with children.

This love affair is sickeningly high on rhetoric. Think of the children, they say. This is for the kids. Trick luh da kids. I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and lead the way. Our government talks about an America that supersedes the current one for the benefit of kids. The educational system tasks itself with academically enriching our youth. Commercials show children as the not only the impetuses for our behavior, but the beneficiaries, while hawking their wares. Religion frequently alludes to children as the indicator of our legacies. Our morals, judgment, direction, and successes are all for our children. We, simply put, want our kids to have a better life than we did. All rhetoric aside, I ask for the first time in history, is America actually doing it for its kids? Would Shirley Temple Wong benefit living in today’s world? Are we really improving the world for them? Are they going to be better off than we were?

I guess that depends on what you consider good for the kids. Is sexually abusing our kids and keeping it under wraps doing it for the kids? Was the Catholic Church doing it for the kids? In America, our kids can get shot if they’re the wrong color, even if they’re in the right neighborhood. Gun violence continues to run rampant while we are desensitized to mass murder. Are the NRA and the rest of the gun lobby doing it for the kids? The environment is polluted to unsustainable levels, while governments and oil, coal, and car companies stifle innovation that can reduce our carbon footprint and the chances of a catastrophic climate event. The science world is at an almost 100% consensus about climate change, while religious and business lobbies mask the smog-hazed truth. Are BP and Koch Industries doing it for the kids? How about Americans for Prosperity?

In America, our kids are fed over-processed, sugary food and then we wonder why they’re tired and obese. Kraft, Nestle, PepsiCo, and Monsanto are doing it for the kids, right? Some American kids are forced to ignore science for religion, limiting their curiosity because of old-held prejudices and fears. Kids are exposed to sexuality too early by the media and then we wonder how they manage to get pregnant. To boot, under religious pretense, places where kids can learn about safe sex and get preventative care are disappearing. Then, young and single mothers are shamed, calling them ‘takers’ for needing welfare. Are abstinence-only curriculums really good for the kids? Is the pro-life lobby doing it for the kids? They seem to always want kids to be born, but never seem to want to care for them after.

STFU, Old Economy Steve

American kids today are over-parented and over-structured. They end up maladjusted, scared to step out of their comfort zones. They’re over-prescribed and can’t feel anything or relate to anything without a screen. Surely AstraZeneca and Pfizer are doing it for the kids? Our schools fail while school administrators, politicians, parents, and others bicker over how the schooling should be done. Standardized testing saps the creativity and innovation out of classrooms. The promise of higher education has become a prospect of profit instead of opportunity, with college tuition rising faster than inflation, only surpassed by the dangerously ballooning bubble of student loan debt. Publishing companies and bookstores on college campuses collude to keep textbook prices artificially high. Are ETS and the College Board doing it for the kids? How about those university administrators and executives? What about McGraw-Hill and Sallie Mae? They’re doing it for the kids, right?

Our country spies on us and calls it “surveillance” and “counter-terrorism”. The US has outstanding military action in a number of countries, a good handful of which want to blow us into another universe. We’ve been at war for more than half my life, with no end in sight. There are more veterans than jobs and veteran health assistance to go around. Is the Pentagon doing it for the kids? What about the VA, NSA, CIA, FBI, and every other acronym-based government agency? Of course the military-industrial complex is, right? What about our friends on Wall Street? We surely can’t forget about our financiers. They’re definitely doing it for the kids, right? They can bankrupt companies, cause a global financial meltdown based on a Byzantine structure of money manipulation and overvaluation, not get prosecuted for those fraudulent procedures, keep their jobs and money, and then get raises! Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Barclays definitely are doing it for the kids!

We gerrymandered and poured so much private money into our legislatures that the ‘change’ Obama promised is a huge joke. Prime example: This February, our government passed a bill cutting food stamps and upholding farm subsidies in a rare bipartisan vote. That means the President signed off on it. That means there was consensus among the least productive legislative session in United States history. Imagine that. A Congress that can’t agree on anything agreed to take the guarantee of sustenance for children away. A bunch of problematically old, out-of-touch, mostly white men who want for nothing literally taking food out of kids mouths. You’d have to be delusional to think the government is doing much for the kids, much less even trying at this point.

If you’re still reading, no, America isn’t really doing it for the kids. I know what you’re thinking: “If Millenials want change, they should enact it! Ev, your generation is one of the least civically engaged in American history! You guys are narcissistic, coddled, and overly-entitled!” Can you blame us, though? We grew up under helicopter parents who espoused the promise of the now-debunked American Dream. The social contract that has bound America for over a century is being twisted into an unrecognizable façade of itself, while my generation languishes, perpetually insulted by older generations who’ve lost any motivation to understand or aid in our struggle. Additionally, our country’s leaders balk when it comes to empowering young people, whether restricting our voting rights, or treating us like criminals when we protest their inadequacy, or starting War on Drugs to silence us. Why would anyone want to engage with a system like that?

More important than that America isn’t doing it for the kids is why America isn’t doing it. Every instance I mentioned of today’s American inadequacy hurting future generations is clearly rooted in the overindulgence in capitalism. Kool A.D.’s Das Racist partner Heems said it best on their song ‘Brand New Dance.’ “It’s a brand new dance… Give us all your money!” Capitalism’s vice grip on our country makes it impossible to truly plan and create a better future, especially when it’s not spent on our future. If you need more proof of America’s failure to its progeny, look no further than where our money goes. The Urban Institute updated a 2008 study in 2012 examining the local, state and federal spending on Americans 65 and older and 19 and under. Grandma and Grandpa got $26,355 per capita, while we only got $11,822, about 55% less. The America I see is eating its young, and then some, subsequently eating its future by not investing in it.

The sad part is, we don’t want much more than what previous generations want: a fulfilling education, a stable economy with job opportunities, fair wages, and American promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. An America that works for and not against us is not too much to ask for. So, do it for the kids, America. Stop letting selfish interests drive the unfulfilled promises of that catchphrase. Stop letting the pursuit of money supersede that pursuit of happiness. Stop saying that you’re doing it for the kids and actually do it for the kids. Let’s usher in the same societal high Shirley ‘Jackie Robinson’ Temple Wong thrived in. If we do, the little kids Kool A.D. was rapping about, and his kids, and all of our kids, and their kids will be just fine.