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
getalife
October 22nd, 2011
3:42 pm
td,
Do all Florida pols pee in a cup too?
It opens up a discrimination lawsuit if they don’t.
td
October 22nd, 2011
3:57 pm
getalife
October 22nd, 2011
3:42 pm
td,
Do all Florida pols pee in a cup too?
It opens up a discrimination lawsuit if they don’t.
I have not idea but if I was guessing I would say no. I can guarantee you that all law enforcement officers and DFCS staff are drug tested. Why is that not discriminatory?
getalife
October 22nd, 2011
3:59 pm
Get all Florida government to pee in a cup and it will be fair but still not freedom.
Perhaps that drug addicted guv should focus on jobs so they can decrease welfare.
@@
October 22nd, 2011
4:10 pm
Getalife:
Does your doctor ask you to pee in a cup? Does he pee in a cup?
getalife
October 22nd, 2011
4:15 pm
@@,
No and no.
We believe in freedom.
@@
October 22nd, 2011
4:17 pm
Getalife:
With Obamacare, you’d be well advised not to pee in a cup at your doctor’s office.
In a proposed rule from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal government is demanding insurance companies submit detailed health care information about their patients.
(See Proposed Rule: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Standards Related to Reinsurance, Risk Corridors and Risk Adjustment, Volume 76, page 41930. Proposed rule docket ID is HHS-OS-2011-0022
The HHS has proposed the federal government pursue one of three paths to obtain this sensitive information: A “centralized approach” wherein insurers’ data go directly to Washington; an “intermediate state-level approach” in which insurers give the information to the 50 states; or a “distributed approach” in which health insurance companies crunch the numbers according to federal bureaucrat edict.
They’ll know what you’ve been doin’. They’ll take away your benefits.
getalife
October 22nd, 2011
4:20 pm
@@,
I am clean.
I take prescribed drugs.
They take blood tests.
@@
October 22nd, 2011
4:31 pm
Getalife:
You gave up the weed?
getalife
October 22nd, 2011
4:33 pm
Yup.
A long time ago.
@@
October 22nd, 2011
4:38 pm
An older article, but still true today. Maybe more so with the economy in decline.
There Aren’t Enough Millionaires
The rich can’t fund our deficits
This may sound like a liberal parody of conservative economic thinking, but let me put it out there: America’s problem is that the rich don’t have enough money.
There, I said it. Let’s rumble.
Every time you raise the threshold for eating the rich, you get a much, much smaller serving of meat on the plate — but the deficit stays the same. The long division gets pretty ugly. You end up chasing a revenue will-o’-the-wisp.
So, what about Lloyd Blankfein and Charlie Sheen and Tiger Woods? What about these people? You can tax the striped pants off of them, but you won’t get enough money to balance the budget. If you’re doing it, you’re probably mostly doing it because it feels good.
I love this part: (And, yes, that does make you a bad person.)
All or none. It’s only fair.
@@
October 22nd, 2011
4:38 pm
Good for you, Getalife.
catlady
October 22nd, 2011
5:10 pm
If you don’t want to (be sterilized, pee in a cup, whatever) don’t ask for the support for yourself and your choices.
We simply cannot afford to pay people for their poor choices. The old “you made your bed” thingy.
catlady
October 22nd, 2011
5:11 pm
And, td, I am not surprised. You might be surprised that I am one of the more liberal folks on this blog, but enough is enough. Reality time. Either impose it on yourself or have it imposed for you.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
6:05 pm
In a proposed rule from Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the federal government is demanding insurance companies submit detailed health care information about their patients.
———-
Libtards believe in freedom. Except when they don’t.
Fascists.
@@
October 22nd, 2011
6:49 pm
Whooaaaa!
Things are heating up at Woodruff.
Occupy Atlanta ordered to clear Woodruff Park
“We are here until the civic problems that brought us here are changed,” Franzen vowed.
Ooohhhhh, the drama! And if they don’t change? Are they gonna live there forever? HOTLANTA takes on new meaning.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
6:53 pm
Occupy Atlanta ordered to clear Woodruff Park
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed on Saturday issued a second ultimatum to Occupy Atlanta protesters who have camped out at a popular Downtown park: Leave or be arrested.
———————————-
A dollar says the coward backs down again.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
6:55 pm
Atlanta police officers and firefighters watched nearby as the 80 to 100 protesters blocked Auburn Avenue, chanting, “No Justice! No peace!”
———————-
80 to 100? Pathetic. What are these losers and parasites pretending to be 99% of?
@@
October 22nd, 2011
7:16 pm
Who didn’t see this coming?
Pedophiles want same rights as homosexuals
The gay community needs to address these “people”.
Using the same tactics used by “gay” rights activists, pedophiles have begun to seek similar status arguing their desire for children is a sexual orientation no different than heterosexual or homosexuals.
@@
October 22nd, 2011
7:20 pm
OWS Protesters Could Face Zoonotic and Vector- borne Diseases
The human waste that is reportedly being left by protesters is not only a general health risk, but also tends to attract pests that spread disease through bites and fecal matter. Tim Mack,with Politico, interviewed Catherine Hughes, who lives one block from Zuccotti Park:
“They are defecating on our doorsteps. A lot of people are very frustrated. A lot of people are concerned about the safety of our kids.”
ew
nasty
@@
October 22nd, 2011
7:39 pm
A quietly hilarious video from yesterday’s Community Board meeting at the New York State Assembly, in which a representative of the Occupy Wall Street movement explains the new “consensed” (which isn’t a word, however hard he tries to make it one) policy on drumming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPeZ1n8vrTI&feature=player_embedded
The OWS “Working Group” speaking on behalf of the “OWS Drumming Group”!!!!????!!!!
The two individuals sitting against the wall can hardly contain their laughter.
Hillbilly D
October 22nd, 2011
8:03 pm
Those Occupy folks might learn something from this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7ALb8uYdmQ
Of course, once they get the hang of it, they’ll have to change the signals every few days.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 22nd, 2011
8:27 pm
What obozo has done is to set a precedence. In his case, if you don’t like a strongman keeping the islamic lunatics in check, use the US Armed Forces to kill him. Herman Cain, take note.
Here’s to hoping the Herminator don’t like Iran’s Imawhackjob. Or whichever communist punk runs China nowadays.
Let’s off em like obozo would.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 22nd, 2011
9:02 pm
Yep, your cowardly mayor backed down to the white kids crapping and peeing in Woodruff Park.
zeke
October 22nd, 2011
9:04 pm
The easy quick divorce laws allowing to end a marriage just by simply saying can’t get along, or, don’t love them anymore, or simply don’t want to be married any longer, plus, the myriad socialist democrat welfare and payments to unmarried mothers to keep having children are responsible for this rampant moral decay in our country! And, to glorify unwed mothers regardless of their social status or wealth is absurd!
@@
October 22nd, 2011
9:08 pm
Hillbilly:
A lotta touchin’ goin’ on in that baseball video. A WHOLE LOT!!!
(ISH)
I think the protesters would get confused with that many hand signals. Wigglin’ fingers UP. Wigglin’ fingers DOWN. Repeat after me.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 22nd, 2011
9:50 pm
“The cold affects us already,” admitted Maria Fehlig, a volunteer nurse at the protesters’ makeshift infirmary, a small blue tent marked by a cross that is the only structure so far tolerated by owners of the park ensconced between skyscrapers.
Oh well, maybe they’ll remember what this was all about next spring.
Hahahahaha, yeah, right.
@@
October 22nd, 2011
9:55 pm
I wonder if the protesters would be willing to maintain the land they’re squatting on. Give ‘em all a rake with some leaf bags. Kinda like SHARECROPPERS. They’re all about sharin’ and croppin’.
schnirt
the red herring
October 22nd, 2011
9:57 pm
kyle–it’s way past time for america to wake up and smell these roses–this has been going on for at least the past 40 years. women who have children out of wedlock frequently do so to increase their welfare checks—they have no intent on spending that money on the children but rather on their own support, drug, tobacco, alcohol use. i could care less what color these women are and in fact i’m sure there are a great many white women that fit in this category. the solution doesn’t come from continuing to tell them “have a another child out of wedlock and we’ll increase your check”—that’s been tried and has failed miserably. perhaps “have another child and we’ll remove the children from your home and stop all of your government assistance”. that would greatly decrease these births. the women doing this are not as stupid as most people portray them. they are smart enough to know that their womb is key to increased wealth and the cries of “racist”, etc only serves to protect their paychecks… sad but true. any person that stands up and tells you that this isn’t continuing to happen and nobody has a child to raise their “pay” is telling you a lie.
i have known of too many cases of this behavior for it not to be so. my mother sold insurance to several of these women and when she would ask them “what in the world do you want to have another child for?” the answer was always because i’m not making enough money….. now who is dumber the woman increasing her check of the people paying for it?? when you look at a single woman working a job who has two kids and get’s all sorts of welfare, food stamps, etc then gets every dime of federal income tax she paid in back PLUS an additional 3 to 4 grand for earned income tax credits…. it’s easy to see why they feel the way they do. black,white,hispanic it’s happening in all races and it’s really hurting this country.
the red herring
October 22nd, 2011
10:08 pm
kyle–one more thing is the amount of money that is spent to try and educate the children born under these circumstances—the mothers pay none of their own money—it’s all government/taxpayer money—right down to the last drop. people have to begin to understand the taxpayer can’t continue to pay all these bills for all these folks who aren’t paying “their fair share”. we don’t have politicians who are strong enough to stand up and tell this like it really is. Perhaps Herman Cain can get this point across. For sure the current tax system is broken and we need a flat or fair tax. Still think the fair tax is a better solution than 9-9-9. imagine how much tax we would have collected from al gore, timothy geitner, and the likes if we had had a simple and straightforward tax code….. tax the rich indeed.
Carla
October 22nd, 2011
10:21 pm
Women use children as leverage in a divorce. It is no suprise that they use them as leverage to gain benefits.
@@
October 22nd, 2011
10:37 pm
Good grief!
Obama: Alone on the bus
How blatantly obvious can they be. He’s campaigning in the South…”Alone on the bus”.
Who is this Glenn Thrush guy?
SeeB
October 22nd, 2011
11:18 pm
@@ – Late response but…I in no way meant to imply that one party was more or less responsible for welfare reform. I was just trying to make the point that welfare as was known prior to Clinton no longer existed.
Now while I will probably never agree with your political views, you made a statement earlier today on this blog with which I whole heartedly agree….
Why were unwed fathers chased from the home as a condition of federal and state support for impoverished children?
Same reason unwed fathers have no say when it comes to aborting his child.
I believe a man should have a say so. If a woman can decide she does not want to be a mother and not have to have the consent of the father, a man should have the same right. And I don’t want to hear about a man not having a uterus. By the same argument, a woman is not able to impregnate herself (Last sentence not meant for you @@).
SeeB
October 22nd, 2011
11:34 pm
Red Herring – Please stop buying into the myth that women are having children out of wedlock to increase their welfare checks. Do you even know how the welfare system works? Have you ever talked to or worked with any of the women to whom you refer? A lot of the women come from homes where the father was absent. Most of the girls of whom you speak saw their mother struggle, they saw anger and bitterness. Some of these young girls became the brunt of their mothers anger. Some of these young women never see love and acceptance. Unless you have worked with the young women of whom you speak, please refrain from judgement. Do I have the answers – NO. Do I like what is going on – NO. You buy into the argument that so much tax payer money is going to “these people”, but non of us know exactly where our tax dollars are being spent. I agree that there are able bodied persons working the system, but I also believe there are some corporations working the system.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 23rd, 2011
7:31 am
“I also believe there are some corporations working the system.”
——————
“Everybody does it” is not a valid defense. It’s a lame excuse. The two problems are independent and can be solved separately. Government policy that destroys families and impoverishes children has nothing to do with cronyism.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 23rd, 2011
7:39 am
The US suffered a major diplomatic and military rebuff on Friday when Iraq finally rejected its pleas to maintain bases in the country beyond this year.
obozo negotiated to stay, keep 10,000 troops and would have if Iraq hadn’t punked him. They said no to immunity to our troops, said no to the bases and told this meddling islamic lunatic hiding behind hillary clinton’s skirt to get the f out.
Can you say Vietnam, Part Duhx?
Skip
October 23rd, 2011
7:58 am
The poor are responsible for all the country’s problems. They have all the power.
Michael H. Smith
October 23rd, 2011
8:51 am
Can we tweak that last comment a bit, Skip?
Those of poor – ethical and moral – character are responsible for all the country’s problems. Far too many of them have far too much and concentrated wealth.
This broadens the scope of this particular topic considerably. However, the focus is on poverty – or should be per se’ – and the members of our society who are often considered the most vulnerable to the devastating effects poverty has on them, long and short term, which has no less impacts on the society that unfortunately is responsible for creating it, for whatever inexcusable reasons.
~
Wealth divide might stifle jobs
http://www.ajc.com/business/wealth-divide-might-stifle-1208113.html
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 23rd, 2011
9:00 am
Skip: The parasites are responsible for most of the country’s problems. They suck up all the resources that should be going to “rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure” and “investing in our people”.
—————————-
Fixed. In a libtard-friendly way.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 23rd, 2011
9:04 am
My brother is visiting Finland. I suggested that he go and visit the $500 million Obozo sent to offshore to stimulate job growth elsewhere.
Michael H. Smith
October 23rd, 2011
9:12 am
Oh no llb, you don’t mean those lousy limousine liberals and people like George Sores should be creating jobs with all their wealth and writing out a big fat Warren Buffet & Bill Gates checks to the U.S. Treasury in order to pay down the debt that their buds in Congress created, instead of financing un-American activities?
Say it ain’t so llb.
I’ll wait on the resident blog socialists to take on those on the corrupt so-called right.
Lil' Barry Bailout (Unexpectedly Revised Downward)
October 23rd, 2011
9:23 am
Just trying to point out that, despite the ignorant libtards’ belief, resources are limited and choices have to be made. Support the slothful, baby-making machines to perpetuate our crime, drug, and poverty problems, or rebuild those falling bridges and spend even more on edumacation?
Michael H. Smith
October 23rd, 2011
10:45 am
How about the slothful supporting themselves, lbb?
How about the over paid CEO’s, executives and Wall Street/Bailed out Banking/GM Union crowd stop ripping off their under compensated stock holders and overburdened taxpayers who they have screwed out of billions, if not trillions of dollars?
How about zero corporate tax to get rid of all those lousy K Street lobbyist everyone claims to hate that influence Congress and their appointed bureaucrats into making crony regulations solely to enhance profits and limit if not eliminate real liberated market competition?
How about attaching education funds to the individual student instead of the to government education monopoly?
How about turning lose the energy resources of this country in the responsible way for our sole use and economic prosperity, instead of fighting wars for crony capitalism, while making the enemies of this country all richer and pretending that we don’t pollute the planet because we take our oil craps in someone else’s backyard … just so our liberals can ignore the global stink we actual made and then say we didn’t do it… It, it, was just those evil oil companies. How about American energy independence without the idiots on the left and right stopping us from achieving what can be done in the most energy sustainable yet least environmentally costly manner?
Okay Comrades, your turn to occupy.
@@
October 23rd, 2011
10:46 am
@@ – Late response but…I in no way meant to imply that one party was more or less responsible for welfare reform. I was just trying to make the point that welfare as was known prior to Clinton no longer existed.
Clinton was a reluctant participant…ergo the argument “If dems can keep you poor, they will.” It’s in their best interest.
It was a Republican, Newt Gingrich who pushed for welfare reform.
Back to the education issue. Why, if they want a better life, why do they consistently reject the OPPORTUNITY to educate themselves? Have they been “encouraged” by the powers that be? Crumbs from the table are sufficient?
I’m forced to assume they’re certifiable.
@@
October 23rd, 2011
10:49 am
Oops! why…Why…WHY. There’s one too many.
redneckbluedog
October 23rd, 2011
10:59 am
ABSOLUTELY……BAN DIVORCE NOW…!!!!!!!! And cut these government benefits like Peach Care and WIC and welfare and food stamps and FREE SCHOOLS FOR KIDS……Kids are able to work about age 8, like in China….you see how good China’s economy is…!!!! MAKE KIDS WORK AT AGE 8 AND PAY FOR SCHOOL IF THEY WANT TO GO……If not, the Koch brothers can hire them in the coal mines and oil fields for $2.00 and hour……..and they can pay for health insurance too…!!!! Especially the ones with childhood cancer…..THEY ARE COSTING US A FORTUNE…!!!!!!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 23rd, 2011
11:13 am
Seeing how the lib media despises Cain and admires Romney, I now know who the best candidate for the Republican presidential nominee is.
Herman Cain 2012!
Go Herminator!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: Thee Magnificent!!! mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
October 23rd, 2011
12:11 pm
And now the real genocide begins-
BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Libya’s transitional leader says Islamic Sharia law will be the “basic source” of all law.
allah akbar, obozo.
Toby
October 23rd, 2011
1:44 pm
Here’s a social factor which causes poverty more than single parent households: the way $140 trillion was lost when companies like Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bear Sterns, Chase, CitiGroup, Wells Fargo & CountryWide created bogus wealth on the backs of subprime mortgages. That’s sort of a way bigger deal… it is affecting the world economy while single parent households have a much smaller effect. This article gets a D for a lack of accuracy.
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
October 23rd, 2011
1:53 pm
“Libya’s transitional leader says Islamic Sharia law will be the “basic source” of all law.”
And why did many of us see this happening fro the very beginning, and the incompetent one in the Oval Office did not?
Tiberius - Your lightning rod of hate!
October 23rd, 2011
1:56 pm
And Toby, who allowed for the increase in subprime mortgages? Democrats in Congress.
And who allowed for the mixing of mortgages and investments? Democrats and Republicans Congress.
Blaming Wall St. for this mess is like blaming your dog for pooping on your lawn. You don’t blame the dog for being a dog.