The Fifth Freedom: Guaranteeing an Opportunity-Rich Childhood for All

David Erickson's new book, The Fifth Freedom, argues that the status quo in the United States is unfair and expensive and that a commitment to the fifth freedom would save trillions on avoided chronic disease, incarceration, educational failures, and lost productivity. He proposes place-based institutions that support growth and development, such as good schools, well-funded libraries, safe streets and public spaces, quality health care, spiritual homes, and well-functioning transportation.

Format: Hardback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 27 February 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

It is within our power to provide an opportunity-rich childhood for all. In 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt delivered his famous Four Freedoms speech, proposing that all Americans should be granted the freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. In his new book, The Fifth Freedom, senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York David Erickson makes the case for the freedom to an open future. The status quo in the United States is unfair and expensive. We spend too much on downstream consequences of people living in poverty rather than spending money on the upstream conditions that would guarantee an opportunity-rich childhood for all. A strong foundation in childhood is the best predictor of a healthy and productive adulthood. A commitment to the fifth freedom would save trillions on avoided chronic disease, incarceration, educational failures, and lost productivity. The Fifth Freedom calls for place-based institutions that support growth and development—good schools, well-funded libraries, safe streets and public spaces, quality health care, spiritual homes, and well-functioning transportation that puts other essential amenities in reach, especially jobs—that work in concert with individual interventions—tutoring, counseling, and coaching. Not providing children with the resources they need is more expensive than reacting to the negative consequences of not having them.

Weight: 452g
Dimension: 236 x 160 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780815740032