Could capitalism care less ?

The issue of young carers, ie kids under the age of 18 who care for relatives with severe disabilities, is rather an emotive issue - with the young carers, like their disabled relatives, generally portrayed as "tragic but brave" objects of pity. There are a number of problems with this attitude.

The first is that it puts across the image of people with disabilities as a burden on society, and on the young carers in particular. The media and the Establishment (the same capitalist Establishment who not so long ago supported curfews on kids) bemoan the fact that kids have such a burden as a result of their disabled or ill relatives that they cannot get out and socialise, make friends etc. While this is sometimes true, it is hardly fair to blame people with disabilities, many of whom would dearly wish to have a more independent lifestyle, and not be reliant on carers of any age.

This is not to say that disabled parents (or other relatives) should be pressured into making their kids look after them and do jobs for them. I'm not gonna pretend that it's any fun for the kids, I know that it ain't! Preventing kids from being able to play or socialise with their friends, and explore their area, is not only wrong - it is alienating to the kids, in both the traditional and the Marxist sense of the word. The problems associated with capitalist society's reliance on young carers is summed up by the following quotes from Socialist Worker issue 1855 (14th June 2003):

"More than 13,000 British children under 18 are working more than 50 hours a week to provide care for a sick or disabled relative while trying to keep up full-time attendance at school. A report from the Children's Society and the YMCA found that children as young as five are spending longer than the adult maximum working week caring for a relative, often with inadequate support from public services."

The total number of young carers in the UK is estimated to be around 50,000. Most of these will be temporarily in a caring role, for the duration of their parent's (or other relative's) illness or disability, and few will have lives bearing any resemblance to the extreme examples so often quoted in the sensationalist media or by tear-jerking charities. On the other hand, the temporary nature of most young carer's positions means that the number of kids affected by the situation at some point in their childhood is likely to be significantly greater than the estimated 50,000.

For those affected, the tendency to blame the disabled relatives is doing them no favours at all. It reinforces the stigma of disability, which has already resulted in 71% of young carers being the victim of school bullies (source: a BBC news report from 1999) because of their association with a disabled person. Indeed, it is not unknown for young carers to have a disibility themselves. The stigma also makes a number of young carers reluctant to seek access to the (inadequate) social provisions which are available.

At the same time, those who insist that young carers should "think themselves lucky it's not them who are ill or disabled" are not just being crass and insensitive - they are also missing the point totally!

The problem has nothing to do with illness or disability, it has a social cause. Besides, it's not only young carers who become "social slaves" - a number of households where both parents are working have also been known to give their kids an unwelcome degree of work and responsibility. So what is the answer?

A first step in the right direction would be to get rid of the stigma associated with disability, which means that young carers would be more willing to seek advice about their situation.

The problems experienced by young carers are also aggravated by the fact that they are often in families where parents are unable to work, and reliant on poor (and constantly attacked by the government) benefits. While improvements in technology could be making life easier for both people with disabilities and young carers, these innovations are often priced out of the reach of those who need it most. A decent level of non-means tested benefits for both disabled people and young people would help ease this situation.

An improvement in the services on offer by local councils - eg meals on wheels, laundry services - would also help people with disabilities lead more independent lives, without relying on their kids. And without relying on other family members - even the reliance of people with disabilities on adult family members can only aggravate social inequality. Also, household equipment such as cookers, washing machines, kitchen sinks etc should be re-designed to enable more disabled people to use them, and help people with disabilities to do things ourselves rather than relying on other people.

However, the real way to give disabled and ill people a decent independent lifestyle, and allow their kids more freedom and independence, is to move away from the reliance on the nuclear family (which is a product of capitalism). A society in which the whole of society takes responsibility for all members of society, whether disabled or non-disabled, young or old, is what is needed - or, as Marx put it, "from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs". To achieve this we must smash the capitalist system.

And replace it with socialism.

Links

Hampshire Young Carers website - general website for young carers, with many links of interest to young people in general

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