How Welfare Programs Discourage Marriage: The Case of Pre-K Education Subsidies

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.

American fears of continued government expansion and the relative prosperity of the nation have kept the initiation of long-term, large-scale social programs at bay. America has no national family financial allowance and allows more children to remain in poverty than does any other industrialized nation. It offers unmarried mothers less help with d

One of the most disturbing facts about American marriage today is that while divorce increased at similar rates for the wealthy and the poor in the 1960s and ’70s, those rates diverged sharply starting around 1980. According to the sociologist Steven P. Martin, among Americans who married between 1975 and 1979, the 10-year divorce rate was 28 perce

En raison de cette immersion grandissante de l’État dans les affaires familiales, la famille traditionnelle a été fragilisée. Si l’État peut se substituer au père, en fournissant allocations et aides sociales en tout genre, à quoi sert une famille unie ?

Because women are scarce, the marriage market is very competitive, and men often have to accumulate substantial wealth or own a home in order to attract a potential spouse.36 It is also quite possible that a strong desire to save is simply an integral aspect of Chinese culture.

Would a universal housing program be a disincentive to work? It is a fair and important question. One study has shown that housing assistance leads to a modest reduction in work hours and earnings, but others have found no effect.51 In truth, the status quo is much more of a threat to self-sufficiency than any housing program could be. Families cru