WelfareQueen
Diamond Member
Well then, what do you suggest?
Children born out of wedlock may be twice as likely to live in poverty but if you cut all social welfare for the child, how could that possibly help them? Make sure the parent(s) gets absolutely no money, so they are forced to give them up, thereby ensuring a better life for the child? That's pretty draconian.
Plenty of poor white people collect welfare for their children born out of wedlock. Is welfare decimating the white family too?
Children should not be punished for having irresponsible parents. Many ignorant young women in the inner city intentionally get pregnant so they don't have to work. Their children are their meal ticket. Once a father is identified, he is legally responsible for financially caring for the children, and the State is off the hook.
That is why there are so few identified black fathers, and poverty and child illegitimacy are so high. The social welfare system has created the problem.
My solution is a return to orphanages. Give the Mom a year to get a job...any job. If she refuses to work and provide any support for her children she has abridged her legal responsibilities to her children. Since the State is already paying to raise her children, put them in a setting that is clean and safe. Trust me, it can't be worse than where most of these children are currently living.
Your ignorant young women in the inner city are the exception and not the rule:
Using data from government agencies, social scientists and researchers worldwide, the report shows that single mothers in the U.S. — most of whom are either separated or were previously married — are employed more hours and yet have much higher poverty rates than their peers in other high-income countries. Let me run that by you again — because it’s generally not what you’ve been reading of late in the news: the majority of single mothers in the U.S. are separated, divorced or widowed; and they work more hours and yet have higher poverty rates than single mothers in other high-income countries.
This Week in Poverty: U.S. Single Mothers ? ?The Worst Off? | The Poverty Line, What Matters Today | BillMoyers.com
But here's the surprising thing: Most of those single moms are working. They remain mired in poverty because they tend to have low-wage jobs without benefits or opportunities for advancement—and because the U.S. has one of the skimpiest social safety nets in the western world. And the Great Recession has only made things worse.
"Although women are participating at the highest rate in modern times in the U.S. formal workforce, they continue to face obstacles to greater economic self-sufficiency and equality," says Maya Harris, vice president of Democracy, Rights and Justice for the Ford Foundation.
The Face of American Poverty Today | Women in the World Foundation
And by the way, ignorant young women who intentionally get pregnant are found in all areas of the country, not just inner city.
Single mothers and high poverty rates have been known for years. And single mothers should be working. What...should they get a cookie because they work? Any able bodied adult should be working.
What you are missing is that "social safety net programs," (what an Orwellian Phrase), have created much of the child illegitimacy in the first place. For the record...I know of what I speak. I worked in an inner city ER for years as a mental health clinician. My wife worked for years in the projects as a child therapist.
One of her mother's said shortly after Clinton's welfare reform law..."It's hard to work and raise kids." My wife basically said, "No shit. Millions of women do it every day. What makes you so fucking special?"
People need to be accountable for their own lives and raise their children. It is not the State's responsibility. If you don't want kids or you can't afford them, get an abortion. The time should be over for coddling able bodied adults. Be responsible, be accountable, and be a active contributing member of our civil society. If you refuse to do these things I have zero compassion, and do not feel society has any obligation to support these deadbeats.
The first rule of therapy is to unflinchingly look at what needs addressing and own up to it. Failure to do this results in perpetuation of the problem indefinitely. I would say that is a highly accurate description of our "social safety net programs."
Btw...I think it's cool you gave such a detailed response, and I think your data is mostly accurate. I just know how dismally the social welfare state functions in our society. It is an abject failure. Trillions of dollars since the days of Lyndon Johnson with no change in poverty rates, skyrocketing child illegitimacy, and a general increase in social ills. Something needs to change.
Last edited: