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Finding the solution for bad parenting is one of the most difficult problems that I can think of...

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I'm sure you support government intervention, no?

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Well, it depends on who is controlling the government... :) If I am the emperor, of course I support! But I can also imagine a much more likely scenario in which a bunch of blue hair whales control the government and impose the exact opposite (e.g., what is happening now). In that case, I obviously don't support.

I actually thought a bunch of things related to the dilemma above and I don't even think that I can explain my whole rationale in writing in a semi-organized way for anyone else to understand... I am also not 100% sure about it, but my conclusion so far is that other people (i.e., the government) do not have the right to force parents to raise their kids in a certain way.

What the government can and should do in my opinion is to make it very easy for kids to severely punish the parents whenever they decide to do that. Death penalty would be perfectly fine depending on what the parents did. But I do not trust any bureaucrat to decide who is treating kids well and who is not. I only trust the victim to do that.

In terms of concrete actions, having the police monitoring what seems to be abuse of children (to collect evidence for a possible trial later or to simply ask the kid "do you want us to take care of this for you") would be a good idea in my opinion. As well as making it very clear that abusers will really be punished if the victim ever decides to complain.

Anyway, I know that this is not a perfect solution at all. That's why I said it was such a difficult question for me...

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