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Re: Is it possible to create a welfare system that rewards people to be self-sufficie
You can't really prove it happens, but it does. No woman is going to say, "Yes, officer, I had the two little ones because I needed those benefits". I know two women in Michigan who intentionally had babies to prolong their benefits, so I've seen it happen. Does that mean every mom does it? No. Is it an argument for revising the system? Perhaps. More children means more difficulty in finding and keeping work. Part of decentivizing welfare means we should encourage decreased family size until such time as the parents are self-sufficient. I loathe to mention it, but free birth control (not the pill, more likely Mirena, since it lasts 5 years and requires little upkeep) is definitely something that needs to be put on the table.
I have seen this argument pop up over and over since Reagan was in office, and I still have a lot of trouble with it. You make it sound as if "Welfare Motherhood" has become a career track.
If this is really the case, and it can be proven, then why is there no movement to do something about it aside from getting rid of welfare programs entirely? Why hasn't anyone proposed making such a thing illegal with an automatic penalty including removal of the children into the custody of child protective services and a choice of jail time or voluntary sterilization? It strikes me that if it were possible to prove there were such a creature as a "career track welfare mom," this would already be happening.
It seems far more likely that having no real job-skills and a few kids simply makes a single mother unemployable. Without the money to pay for child care while she seeks out better training and a job that can meet the needs of her family, what choice does she have but to stay at home, on welfare and try to raise the kids?
If there were a way to prove that women were doing this on purpose, and were not simply forced into it for lack of any acceptable alternative, I would be in favor of making this choice a criminal act. It has victims - the children and the state, and both deserve justice.
You can't really prove it happens, but it does. No woman is going to say, "Yes, officer, I had the two little ones because I needed those benefits". I know two women in Michigan who intentionally had babies to prolong their benefits, so I've seen it happen. Does that mean every mom does it? No. Is it an argument for revising the system? Perhaps. More children means more difficulty in finding and keeping work. Part of decentivizing welfare means we should encourage decreased family size until such time as the parents are self-sufficient. I loathe to mention it, but free birth control (not the pill, more likely Mirena, since it lasts 5 years and requires little upkeep) is definitely something that needs to be put on the table.