How He Gonna Get His Money pt. 2
"in the late 1940s, the unemployment rate among young black men was not only far lower than it is today but was not very different from unemployment rates among young whites the same ages. Every census from 1890 through 1930 showed labor force participation rates for blacks to be as high as, or higher than, labor force participation rates among whites."
- Thomas Sowell
A 16 year old girl get’s pregnant and quits school. By the time she’s 20, she has another child and lives on her own, supported by the state through child welfare payments, food stamps and healthcare. She also receives section 8 housing, meaning, that her housing is paid for by the state, as well. All totaled, she receives about $40,000 a year in cash and benefits. And more than likely, she’s probably never worked at a real job a day in her life.
If she has more children, her income will rise by about $10,000 a year, per child. If, by the time she’s 25 she has 3 children, she’ll make more annually than many adults with years on the job. There’s just one catch in all of this, she can’t get married, at least, not to a man with an income and, she can’t get a job without losing most of what she receives in benefits. As the result, all of the incentives that would normally compel her to become educated and self reliant, have been removed by the intervention of the state.
None of this was done with malicious intent. It was done because single mothers and their children are far more likely to live in poverty. Supporting women and their young children then, seemed like a noble idea. Unfortunately, once programs were put in place to aid women with dependent children in the 1960’s, poor woman—who were more likely to be Black—stopped getting married in ever growing numbers. Within a single generation illegitimacy increasingly became the norm for African Americans. In other words, the government, acting on it’s desire to help, created a substantial financial disincentive for single women with children to get married, and, for all intents and purposes, the state became the father, the responsible party, enabling dysfunctional family structures to thrive, which would have been nearly impossible otherwise.
This not only negatively impacted woman and children, it also meant that fathers could live without having to work, as well. But, only as long as they “officially” lived outside the home. As the result, both the mother and father became wards of the state. This also meant that a significant portion of a generation of young African American women and men never entered the workforce. And, as such, couldn’t pass on basic knowledge about work experience to their children, primarily, because they were never required to developed those skills. The kinds of essential social skills that enable people to get ahead like punctuality, verbal skills, delaying gratification and marrying before having children, were also circumvented.
The best evidence for this can be found in government statistics for “Labor force participation rates” dating to the 1960’s and moving forward. When a person get’s a job the government tracks their work history through their social security number. For an older generation of African Americans, labor participation rates were high, in spite of segregation and other barriers. With the development of Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society Programs,” however, that changed and the effect, negatively speaking, was immediate.
There were other factors, as well. The creation of federal minimum wage laws beginning in 1931 with the Davis Bacon Act and again in 1938 with the Fair Labor Act were implemented to protect the wages of White workers from Blacks who were willing to work longer and harder for less, just like generations of White immigrants had done before them. This was the same method used by poor Americans, Black, White or other, as a means of entering the labor market and gaining an economic foothold. WWII, however, stalled the implementation of these laws until 1950.
Changes in divorce law made it easier to end marriages with little regard for the effect on children. The massive loss of jobs in the rust belt beginning in the 1970's was, likewise, financially debilitating for American blue collar workers (Detroit would be but one example.)
A radical shift in the moral traditions of American life negatively impacted individuals and families, too. But, it was the welfare state that enabled these culturally destructive patterns to take root by removing many of the social and financial consequences. Only a few short years before, behavior that was widely understood to be socially unacceptable, became common, with widespread and adverse impact for society as a whole.
Today, 73% of all African American children are born into single parent families with no father living in the home. The most common explanation for this is slavery. Census studies after the civil war show that Blacks had slightly higher two parent families than Whites, with similar patterns following throughout much of the 20th century, indicating that this particular problem has a more recent cause. Here are a but few of the ways that children born into homes absent a father, suffer, as the result. And they do so across the board, regardless of race.
Higher rates of poverty
Lower IQ
Criminal behavior with higher incarceration rates
Suicide
Mental illness
Alcoholism and drug addiction
Child abuse
Today, White privilege or institutional racism is stated as the primary cause for the many problems within minority communities. The fact that the government has spent trillions of dollars on income support programs and other preferences, is simply ignored. For progressives, however, all roads lead to racism and its aftermath as the sole cause. Where Liberals occasionally acknowledge family structures as a problem, they still draw a straight line back to racism, demanding more taxes, more preferences, and always, more government. The fact that marriage, a high school diploma and a year or two of consistent employment following high school solves many of these problems, is frequently rejected as an imaginary panacea, concocted by republicans who are hell-bent on starving children and punishing unwed mothers.
In the end, politics seems to take precedence over everything else. And, with an educational establishment that teaches only one version of history, especially in higher education, no one should be surprised that there is a unanimity of mind that follows, as the result. Meaning, if we, as a nation, prescribe the same cure, regardless of the deadly outcome, no healing can take place. And, what was at one time, well-intended, has now become a death sentence, offered as a cure. Not just for minorities, but for all of Americans, as well.
Mark Magula
If she has more children, her income will rise by about $10,000 a year, per child. If, by the time she’s 25 she has 3 children, she’ll make more annually than many adults with years on the job. There’s just one catch in all of this, she can’t get married, at least, not to a man with an income and, she can’t get a job without losing most of what she receives in benefits. As the result, all of the incentives that would normally compel her to become educated and self reliant, have been removed by the intervention of the state.
None of this was done with malicious intent. It was done because single mothers and their children are far more likely to live in poverty. Supporting women and their young children then, seemed like a noble idea. Unfortunately, once programs were put in place to aid women with dependent children in the 1960’s, poor woman—who were more likely to be Black—stopped getting married in ever growing numbers. Within a single generation illegitimacy increasingly became the norm for African Americans. In other words, the government, acting on it’s desire to help, created a substantial financial disincentive for single women with children to get married, and, for all intents and purposes, the state became the father, the responsible party, enabling dysfunctional family structures to thrive, which would have been nearly impossible otherwise.
This not only negatively impacted woman and children, it also meant that fathers could live without having to work, as well. But, only as long as they “officially” lived outside the home. As the result, both the mother and father became wards of the state. This also meant that a significant portion of a generation of young African American women and men never entered the workforce. And, as such, couldn’t pass on basic knowledge about work experience to their children, primarily, because they were never required to developed those skills. The kinds of essential social skills that enable people to get ahead like punctuality, verbal skills, delaying gratification and marrying before having children, were also circumvented.
The best evidence for this can be found in government statistics for “Labor force participation rates” dating to the 1960’s and moving forward. When a person get’s a job the government tracks their work history through their social security number. For an older generation of African Americans, labor participation rates were high, in spite of segregation and other barriers. With the development of Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society Programs,” however, that changed and the effect, negatively speaking, was immediate.
There were other factors, as well. The creation of federal minimum wage laws beginning in 1931 with the Davis Bacon Act and again in 1938 with the Fair Labor Act were implemented to protect the wages of White workers from Blacks who were willing to work longer and harder for less, just like generations of White immigrants had done before them. This was the same method used by poor Americans, Black, White or other, as a means of entering the labor market and gaining an economic foothold. WWII, however, stalled the implementation of these laws until 1950.
Changes in divorce law made it easier to end marriages with little regard for the effect on children. The massive loss of jobs in the rust belt beginning in the 1970's was, likewise, financially debilitating for American blue collar workers (Detroit would be but one example.)
A radical shift in the moral traditions of American life negatively impacted individuals and families, too. But, it was the welfare state that enabled these culturally destructive patterns to take root by removing many of the social and financial consequences. Only a few short years before, behavior that was widely understood to be socially unacceptable, became common, with widespread and adverse impact for society as a whole.
Today, 73% of all African American children are born into single parent families with no father living in the home. The most common explanation for this is slavery. Census studies after the civil war show that Blacks had slightly higher two parent families than Whites, with similar patterns following throughout much of the 20th century, indicating that this particular problem has a more recent cause. Here are a but few of the ways that children born into homes absent a father, suffer, as the result. And they do so across the board, regardless of race.
Higher rates of poverty
Lower IQ
Criminal behavior with higher incarceration rates
Suicide
Mental illness
Alcoholism and drug addiction
Child abuse
Today, White privilege or institutional racism is stated as the primary cause for the many problems within minority communities. The fact that the government has spent trillions of dollars on income support programs and other preferences, is simply ignored. For progressives, however, all roads lead to racism and its aftermath as the sole cause. Where Liberals occasionally acknowledge family structures as a problem, they still draw a straight line back to racism, demanding more taxes, more preferences, and always, more government. The fact that marriage, a high school diploma and a year or two of consistent employment following high school solves many of these problems, is frequently rejected as an imaginary panacea, concocted by republicans who are hell-bent on starving children and punishing unwed mothers.
In the end, politics seems to take precedence over everything else. And, with an educational establishment that teaches only one version of history, especially in higher education, no one should be surprised that there is a unanimity of mind that follows, as the result. Meaning, if we, as a nation, prescribe the same cure, regardless of the deadly outcome, no healing can take place. And, what was at one time, well-intended, has now become a death sentence, offered as a cure. Not just for minorities, but for all of Americans, as well.
Mark Magula