Welfare Hurts Kids

Social welfare has been a progressive tool of choice for the past century.  It has been justified as an expression of solidarity, a way to help the vulnerable and impoverished in our society.  But what if such policies propagate the very circumstances they claim to cure?  Might the government be condemning another generation to lives of hardship?

In a recent article for the NY Times, Kay S. Hymowitz illustrates the price paid by children raised in unstable families.  She argues that single motherhood, the coming and going of parental boyfriends & girlfriends, and the arrival of step-parents & siblings all contribute to the emotional and academic detriment of lower class children.  Instability fosters a difficult path to success.

Policy implications, then, are seen in an IZA study published in 2013, which examined the relationship between family structures and welfare states.  Through a statistical analysis, the study found that “while the welfare state supports the formation of families, it crowds-out the traditional organization of the family by increasing the divorce rate and the number of children born out of wedlock.”

Thus, while implemented to help the poor, welfare systems sadly foster the very status-quo of poverty they claim to fight.

“Even if you believe that enlarging the infrastructure of support for single-parent families shows compassion for today’s children,” Hymowitz warns, “it’s not at all obvious that it shows much concern for tomorrow’s.”

Support for small government and strong families from the NY Times?  Anything is possible.