How Welfare Programs Discourage Marriage: The Case of Pre-K Education Subsidies
Benjamin Parisheritage.org
How Welfare Programs Discourage Marriage: The Case of Pre-K Education Subsidies
Many of our welfare policies, too, have an antifamily design. Supplemental Security Income checks are docked if recipients live with relatives. A mother can lose her rental assistance or public housing unit if she allows the father of her children to live with her in violation of her lease. Households receive a higher total allotment of food stamps
... See moreMatthew Desmond • Poverty, by America
The problem is that many single parents simply can’t afford to work more because of childcare costs.[41] We do not devalue the importance of education or work or marriage by recognizing that when we ask a poor person—someone like Crystal, say—to just finish high school and land a good job and get married, we might as well be asking that person to j
... See moreMatthew Desmond • Poverty, by America
According to Restrepo-Echavarria and her peers at the St. Louis Fed, this economically-driven shift in marriage preferences accounts for approximately half of the increase in household income inequality between 1980 and 2020 — a figure so profound it almost seems unbelievable. “This is a huge thing,” says Restrepo-Echavarria. “If inequality is larg... See more
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Conservatives saw welfare and poverty alleviation programs as undermining the nuclear family, allowing women—and black women in particular—to be government-dependent heads of households instead of husband-dependent domestic helpmeets.