The Greatest Problem Worldwide is not COVID-19, it's this...

Any building that stands in any city is only as strong as the foundations it has and the building blocks, or bricks of which they constructed it.

The same is true of any country. Every country is only as strong as the basic building blocks that form the country. Every country comprises families in all their shapes and sizes. Show me a country with functional families and I will show you a powerful country.

This should be a wake up call that anything, that attacks families is an attack on the country. Anything that undermines families or breaks them apart, is an undermining of the strength of the country.

The effects and outworking of this problem

The problem I refer to causes a four time greater risk of poverty and results in young women being seven times more likely to become pregnant as a teen.

This problem causes children to be more likely to face abuse and neglect, and increases the chances that they have behavioural problems.

This problem results in twice the rate of infant mortality. It increases children's chances of abusing alcohol and drugs.

This problem causes childhood obesity rates to double, it increases the likelihood that children go to prison, and are more likely to commit crime. Children also are twice as likely to drop out of high school.

So What causes all this?

“There is a crisis in America. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18.3 million children, 1 in 4, live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home. Consequently, there is a “father factor” in nearly all of the societal ills facing America today.”

Rights versus Responsibilities

Men need to step up and be responsible, too many people know more about their rights rather than their responsibilities. Society is a magnification of the problems of the family units that make up that society. The greatest problem facing western society and the youth today is absent fathers.

Young men particularly need their dads to be present . This article does not detract from all the amazing single-parent families, many single parents are amazing and deserve hero status.

If I were President of a country

It’s lovely to dream and to pretend, but if I was president of a country, the absent dad problem would be where I would start. Internal harmony and stability is most important and affects everything else. Without internal harmony and stability, you have nothing.

The state of the nation relies on stability, the health of the nation relies on strong families, and powerful role models. The proliferation of young men belonging to gangs is a direct outworking of absent fathers, or fathers not taking their family responsibilities seriously.

Just like economic growth has ripple effects like a pebble in a puddle, so do absent dads.

Parenthood and Dads have a crucial link to play not only for their children and the generations that follow, but to the older generation too. We should assist our parents or our parents-in-law, if need be, taking them into our homes as part of the family. This is what it means to be a man. To take responsibility for those around you.

I know circumstances are different for everyone, so what I am proposing is a mindset, that we should as men aspire to do these things, and be responsible and take responsibility, this is ancient wisdom that we would do well to follow in this day and age.

Let’s take some examples.

The Dad shirks his responsibility, leaves the mother with the child. We now have a one income home raising a child that could be a two income home. Her son seeks male role models outside, the home and down the road, where the gangs recruit kids just like him. He drops out of school; he gets involved in gang activities, drug running, theft, etc.

They arrest him and incarcerate him he and he spends his life in and out of prison, unskilled and uneducated. He knows only a life of crime, so he has to continue to return to what he knows.

The stress and anguish he causes his mother sends her to an early grave. His dad, who was never really involved in his son’s life, then judges the son as being a ‘loser,’ when the dad was the source of the problem.

Another scenario. The dad leaves his family and his daughter, and she craves the love and attention of a male. She gravitates towards men, but because she is insecure, she gives herself to them more than she should. She falls pregnant; the father disappears, just like her dad did. Life is a lot harder from there on. Life is hard enough without adding self inflicted challenges into the mix. Once again, the outlook for the child in this scenario is not good. Poverty is once again lurking at the door, unless she has a very supportive network of friends and family, thus once again highlighting the importance of family.

Final thoughts

I believe that if we solved the absent father problem, it would solve a myriad of other societal issues. I believe that if we taught children and young men and women more about responsibility than rights, the world would be a different place. If we taught people about self control and consequences, to focus internally first before looking externally for excuses for problems. A mindset of ‘what can I do to fix this’ rather than blaming others or circumstances for their problems. I also understand that things are a lot more complicated than this quick article, but I believe this would be what I would focus on and refocus my nation on if I were President of a country.