Georgians look past government to solve child poverty
America’s five-decade war on poverty has made quite clear which social ill is most closely tied to child poverty. Yet, we haven’t taken the first shot at it. Fortunately, some Georgians are finally ready to take the fight where it needs to go.
I’m talking about the breakdown of the two-parent family and births out of wedlock. No other social factor comes closer to explaining why some people are poor and others aren’t.
Not education: In Georgia, the child of two married high school dropouts is less likely to be poor than the child of a single mother who has taken some college classes. More striking, a single mother with a college degree is more likely to live in poverty than are two married high school grads with a child.
Education matters. It’s just not the most important factor when it comes to child poverty.
Nor is race or ethnicity: Poverty rates are higher in Georgia for blacks and Hispanics than for whites. However, a white single parent is almost four times more likely to be poor than are married black parents, and slightly more likely than are married Hispanic parents. Births to unwed women are rising across racial groups.
Perhaps no statistic gets at it more quickly than these two: Three-quarters of poor families with children in Georgia are unmarried. And marriage drops the probability of child poverty in Georgia by 82 percent.
“The collapse of marriage … is the primary reason that you have child poverty,” the Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector said Wednesday in Atlanta.
Rector was in town at the behest of the Georgia Family Council, which just launched a multiyear initiative called Breakthrough Georgia to address the real roots of poverty.
While GFC will seek some new legislation to help the cause, it’s not going to wait around for government solutions. The idea is to find private experts and community groups close to the problems, and raise private funds to pay for the programs they develop.
“Government can only do so much,” said GFC President Randy Hicks, especially when it’s already “stretched thin” financially. And existing welfare programs often exacerbate the problem by giving more money to mothers who aren’t married.
The first task is to identify why so many Georgia women are having children before marriage — already 45 percent of all births in the state and, without action, likely a majority within five years, Rector predicted.
It’s not just teens. There are twice as many unwed births to mothers over 30 than to mothers under 18. Sixty percent are to women in their 20s.
Nor is it a matter of disdain for marriage, Rector said: “These mothers … esteem the institution of marriage.”
“[But] their understanding of it tends to be idealized,” he said, “like you only marry when you’re in the middle class.”
For a starting place, Rector said, Breakthrough Georgia simply needs to tell women unmarried births are a problem.
“If you want to reduce a behavior in society, you have to tell people,” he said, making an analogy to smoking. “You have never told a single one of these young women … that having a child without being married is the royal root to persistent child poverty.”
The compounding effect of generation after generation of unwed mothers means we are “effectively dividing into two social castes,” Rector said. One with the social knowledge to save child-rearing for marriage, and one without it.
Much of the inequality in society flows from that gap. That’s the gap to bridge.
– By Kyle Wingfield
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223 comments Add your comment
Paddy O
October 22nd, 2011
12:27 am
This is one of the unintended consequences of feminism. What can society do? strip the parent of her child? No. Force the women to marry? No. Unfortunately, the prevailing philosophy of the last 40 years has been LBJ’s great society & feminism. Both undermine the roll of fatherhood, marriage & morality. The slippery slope that was warned about has arrived.
Paddy O
October 22nd, 2011
12:31 am
I don’t know how Rector can say that these women who are fornicating & reproducing outside of marriage have an esteem for the institution of marriage. Or, does this just mean they are gold diggers searching for a sucker? This is one element in the self-induced poverty that the federal welfare system actually promotes. If you declared that all citizens would only have access to public housing & other assistance programs for a max of 5 or 10 years, then they would have exhausted gov’t assistance, perhaps it would alter some behavior. I relatively doubt it, but at least they would no longer be wards of the state at that point.
Paddy O
October 22nd, 2011
12:33 am
also, it is not just the births but the root cause – fornication. How women with no job & no husband can run around fornicating is a mystery and challenge to the notion that women are intelligent.
Craig Spinks/ Augusta
October 22nd, 2011
3:26 am
The cynic in me says: (1) A significant portion of the legal profession has an financial stake in effectuating divorces. (2) There are no informal and few formal social controls on/penalties for reproductive irresposibility.(My late Dad told me about how the KKK would pay one visit- and only one- to any male who didn’t take care of his children. (I never asked Daddy how he knew but I suspect the Klan may have visited my offspring-neglecting, alcoholic paternal grandfather.)(3) Sexual activity has become debased to a level correspondent to “rutting” among our four-legged “friends” absent any appreciable response from the many decent among us. (4) Popular society promotes “ease” and is frightened by the difficult. Has anyone else noticed that marriage and child-rearing are “hard?” (5) To quote a female friend who is both attractive and one of the toughest-minded people I know. “Women’s liberation liberated a lot of males from their role as responsible father figure in a stable family. Women were told that they didn’t need those oppressive men anymore.” (6) Children, especially boys, develop more favorably when they live under the same roof as their loving, responsible fathers.
Craig Spinks/ Augusta
October 22nd, 2011
3:29 am
OOPS: Line 2- a financial stake
Lester Maddox
October 22nd, 2011
5:18 am
Couples must be prevented from having children until they have the resources to raise the children. The power of government must be used to this end. The longer our non leaders wait to have this discussion, the worse the situation will get. When you continue to fill a boat it will finally sink and everyone drowns.
Jezel
October 22nd, 2011
6:49 am
We have child poverty because we have national poverty.. because we have no jobs… because of business failures… because of fraud and greed.. because of too little gov regulation.. because too much gov. regulation… causes the same cycle.
Mark
October 22nd, 2011
7:14 am
There are many types of poverty. We have financial poverty among our children because we have poverty of integrity, honor, and self control among our adults. This problem can only begin to be resolved when we as individuals decide to take responsibility for our lives, stop casting blame on society and looking to the government for solutions.
Craig, I love this statement…”Popular society promotes “ease” and is frightened by the difficult. “
Ayn Rant
October 22nd, 2011
7:21 am
Yeh, yeh! Just point out to the poor the error of their ways: being black, Hispanic, or husbandless, and born to parents with no money or connections.
How do you propose to find husbands for all those poor single mothers, Kyle? Some 2,000,000 men are in prison; the country would be better off with a few million more there as well.
How about showing some concern, even if it means spending a dime? Some hassle-free financial support and decent housing would help in the short term. Job training, good child care, and a job would help in the near term. Good schools and good health care would help in the long term.
Why whine about everything but refuse to change anything? Guess that’s the meaning of “conservative”!
JKL2
October 22nd, 2011
7:42 am
ld- And midtown guy has the right idea: (1) sex education in school and for every unwed mom seeking gov’t assistance
I like the idea. What are the chances of an unwed mother being in school? I’ll guess 10%…
JKL2
October 22nd, 2011
7:54 am
ayn rant- Why whine about everything but refuse to change anything?
How about getting off your a$$ and doing something yourself instead of waiting for your government handout and complaining it’s not enough. If you don’t want handouts with strings attached, quit whining and do something about it yourself.
I’ll stick with Ben Franklin. The secret to ending poverty is to make people so uncomfortable with it that they decide to do something about it
Donna P.
October 22nd, 2011
8:00 am
Welfare and food stamps cause proverty. If you pay poor people to be poor, they stay poor and have no incentive to get out of their situation. Why do we have more poor people today then in the 1960’s; because we as a nation created it.
bob
October 22nd, 2011
8:10 am
midtown guy, Do you really think that a 16 year old girl does not know that sex causes pregnancies ?
Go ahead and blame this on conservatives if you want but you seem to be clueless.
Not So Casual Observer
October 22nd, 2011
8:16 am
Government is ALWAYS the problem.
Whether Congress is passing legislation promoting the activity (sub-prime mortgages) or financing the activity (welfare) as two examples, the end result is the same.
Corruption on both sides of the aisle in Congress leads to a “get yours while you can mentality” in the private sector. In the case at hand – have more babies to generate more money for your bad habits, whether drugs, alcohol or gambling. The government money is consumed for the parental needs rather than the children. AJC article today on the mother who was gambling while her car was being repossessed with her baby locked in the car.
The White House has been systematically doling out money in the hundreds of millions of dollars to their political pals (financial contributors) under the guise of green jobs. Loans, some already uncollectable, have been guaranteed by this White House for firms with no chance of success but that has not stopped these crooks from stepping to a micrphone to tell us how these companies are wonderful.
When the government becomes immoral the public follows.
say what?
October 22nd, 2011
8:18 am
Sadly people are still believing that poverty is a race issue. Because we live in a metro area you will see and hear about more poverty and crime. The free health clinics in Cherokee County have had to turn away people in the affluent area just as a free clinic would in metro Atlanta.
If we must make it an race issue Ayn Rand, please know that in the United States people of European descent are in the majority on poverty. Please stop listening to the news whose job it is is to create ratings and propelling race hate is no better way.
Jack
October 22nd, 2011
8:18 am
Robert Rector appears to have a good, firm grip on the obvious. Most sensible people agree that if we quit paying women to have babies, they’ll quit having babies.
Not So Casual Observer
October 22nd, 2011
8:19 am
Mark and Craig nailed the problem.
GT
October 22nd, 2011
8:34 am
The amazement here is the explosion in illegitimate white babies. As the middle class disappears the entire nation picks up the traits of the lowest denominator. For some reason the movement of our youth is downward instead of upward. I think in this we will find the demise of the economy, if not our country. Not only is a larger population poor but in being poor they are not contributing to the country as a whole. How this is not an educational question is beyond me. How can the same white guy in the 60s now accept this as a life today. Something in this study is missing.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
8:43 am
“Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud died in New York hospital early Saturday”
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Huh. I wonder why he didn’t go to Canada for his health care.
Sailfish
October 22nd, 2011
9:11 am
dusty
Yes, you sure are a cold one. Bush & cheney ripped this country to shreds and its like putting a jig saw puzzle back together again. Their handiwork will take many more years to fix, curse on them.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
9:18 am
Libtards went insane after their 2000 defeat and ripped this country to shreds with their all-out effort to defeat our President Bush in 2004. They went so far as to attacking our troops on the floor of the House and Senate and adopting an anti-anti-terror stance, suddenly dropped in January 2009.
Party before country every time for the Democrats.
SBinF
October 22nd, 2011
9:20 am
Those kids should pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Unfortunately, thanks to socialistic policies, small children don’t even have the option of working to support themselves any more. The 1800 and 1900s sure were a good time. At least then, kids could work in factories for a few pennies a day. Now they just don’t stand a chance.
DOWN WITH LIBRULISM
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
9:25 am
Thanks to SBinF for point out that Kyle has brought up an imaginary problem.
Sailfish
October 22nd, 2011
9:25 am
little
Yes, did you notice all the protests with people bring their guns after bush was installed? No, people were justifiably upset wtih some incompetent being outvoted by 500k and chosen by a flake supreme court decision – activist judges? You betcha, states rights? Only when republicans have the advantage.
His administration is the reason this country has been torn asunder
Now with Ten Percent More Flavor
October 22nd, 2011
9:27 am
For a starting place, Rector said, Breakthrough Georgia simply needs to tell women unmarried births are a problem.
In other words, it’s a lack of education.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
9:30 am
Sailfish: Libtards were insanely upset wtih someone not a Democrat outsmarting them in 2000 and just plain whupping them in 2004.
——————————
Fixed.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
9:31 am
Sailfish, the Democrats didn’t have to tear the country apart in revenge for it having elected our President Bush.
Democrats: Party before country. Every time.
KY
October 22nd, 2011
9:31 am
@Barry 9:18 – Party before country is the MO for both political parties. Extreme partisanship is paralyzing this country. We’re never going to solve our problems by constantly pointing fingers.
Walk softly boys
October 22nd, 2011
9:33 am
Jim Wooten’s favorite topic and we all know what happened to his credibility after I exposed his delusional stork schtick for the racist diatribe it truly was. I wonder how long Kyle tweeked this piece to sound credible.
I guess it’s up to me to present the probability of prenatal poverty: the evolution of selective racism. We use arbitrary standards to accept some blacks as worthy equals, or to reject other blacks as hopeless degenerates and objects of fear. The nature of man prevents our acceptance of every single ingredient in the melting pot. Thus injustice went viral and poverty became contagious.
Until that day we will continue to be nauseated by Tea Party editorial droolings like this overchewed cud so expertly and bulemically exorcised from the delusional demons living inside the likes of Kyle WIngfield
brainiac against the great society
October 22nd, 2011
9:34 am
amazement?
I’m amazed that anyone could be amazed at the results of “political correctness” and “the anything goes” attitude of society. As long as society does not firmly condemn child bearing out of wedlock there really isn’t anything that should amaze anyone on this issue, when society has made it a socially acceptable norm with a welfare system to fiscally support it.
Liberals don’t like Conservatives saying it but values and family values do matter.
Herein lies the final proof positive that the right, has it right, on this issue.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
9:34 am
Party before country…is that why our President Bush stayed the course in Iraq even though it hurt his poll numbers as well as Republicans running for Congress? No, He did what was right, and 100 million in Iraq and Afghanistan are free today and the middle east is becoming more democratic and safer.
Mission Accomplished.
Sailfish
October 22nd, 2011
9:36 am
little
Fact: Republican congress 1994 – 2007 january – who you gonna blame? Them that make the laws, nice job in wrecking the economy by lax regulations in the banking arena. Clinton complicit by signing away glass/steagall, both sides screwed the working man. But the iraq war, shining star of idiocy is all yours.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
9:37 am
Walk softly boys
October 22nd, 2011
9:33 am
———————-
The delusions of grandeur are strong in this one.
Boe Jiden
October 22nd, 2011
9:38 am
Mission Accomplished?
Is that Bush’s fault!
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
9:38 am
Sailfish: Fact: Republican congress 1994 – 2007 january – who you gonna blame?
————————–
Blame? For 4-6% unemployment, $170 billion deficits, and a Dow at 14,000? The Republicans, I guess. Everything changed after 2007. Who you gonna blame?
Boe Jiden
October 22nd, 2011
9:46 am
Now don’t mess with me on this guys. Get this straight… what was the unemployment rate when Barack and I took over the country and what is the unemployment rate after three years of our socialist elite crony capitalist rule?
That’s what I’m talking about and the fourth graders I talked to loved it.
Sailfish
October 22nd, 2011
9:48 am
little
Short memory – by sept 08, everything in the toilet, war cost off books, ownership society crashed and the beginning of a new depression. Great job, run up the tab, wreck the economy, then blame the next guy and demand he fix it – now! Joke on little one.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
9:52 am
Sailfish: Short memory
——————–
And as you so adroitly pointed out, that all happened after Democrats took Congress in 2007.
Thanks for helping!
Sailfish
October 22nd, 2011
9:58 am
little
I’ll not waste any more time with a bushbot. Please upgrade with a new memory card.
Auntie Christ
October 22nd, 2011
9:59 am
Typical bashing of women, NOW and the gumment here by the redneck element. I guess someone ought to explain to these benighted fools that those out-of-wedlock babies are created by women AND men. But that would involve sex education, and as we know, Jesus wouldn’t want that.
crying lil' fishjoke
October 22nd, 2011
10:00 am
then blame the next guy and demand he fix it – now!
————————–
That next guy wanted “the demanding job of fixing things” now you and lil’ obozo cry and play the blame game because he is too lil’ for the big tough job he can’t get it done. Cry on lil’ fishjoke
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
10:03 am
Auntie Christ: But that would involve sex education
————————–
Who opposes sex education? All parents should provide it to their kids. To not do so is really irresponsible.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
10:04 am
I’ll not waste any more time with a bushbot.
————————
Must be pretty embarrassing, being defeated by a bushbot.
Sailfish
October 22nd, 2011
10:04 am
cry baby
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but silly little name calling will never harm me. Is this juvenile hall?
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
10:06 am
Name calling, like “bushbot”?
GT
October 22nd, 2011
10:06 am
How does Newt find these honey holes for his gratification? He invented the political pacts that pay an arm and a leg to him to administrate and he is very involved with the Heritage Foundation which directs the blind Republicans that don’t quiet know why they are a party of bigots. Here is a man who had to gerrymand the state of Georgia to find enough like minded people to vote for his to be a congressmen, then becomes speaker because he figured out how to say in educated spin how greed is good. He is playing to the audience of the 1%, their expensive monkey on a chain. Friend this is what is wrong with America. Think tanks that have the answers first and then figure out the question. Now give me a million dollars for thinking that one up.
Bill Campbell
October 22nd, 2011
10:06 am
There should be no welfare! Take care of your own! It is not the role of the government to take care of people!
Sailfish
October 22nd, 2011
10:08 am
little
Yes defeated by your ignorance – you win!
null
October 22nd, 2011
10:08 am
Hand out condoms, easily available to all, free of charge. You’ll have fewer unexpected pregnancies…..less disease spread. It’s a win-win. Or we can continue with the abstinence fallacy. I mean, that worked out so well for Sarah Palin’s oldest slut, right?
crying lil' fishjoke
October 22nd, 2011
10:10 am
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but silly little name calling will never harm me. Is this juvenile hall?
————————
Must be even more embarrassing for a name calling hypocrite escapee from a juvenile delinquent hall being defeated by what they called a bushbot twice over.