How to condemn a child to poverty
By Tom Quiner
Don’t fall for the tired mantra that “tax cuts for the rich” are the root cause of economic inequality. Data refutes the premise.
Illegitimacy, or for the politically-correct, out-of-wedlock births, is the engine of poverty.
Children born to married white parents enjoy a family with a median income of $45,041.
Children born to married black parents enjoy a family with a median income of $44, 987 [Source: U.S. Census Bureau.] It’s about the same. Marriage is the great equalizer in American society.
But children born to single parent households have to do with much less, the average income being only $19,872. It’s much worse for the single black parent: $12,000, and that represents nearly half of black families.
The impact of illegitimacy on our communities is devastating according to data from The Fatherhood Initiative:
• More than 60% of rapists grow up without a father.
• 72% of adolescents grow up without a father.
• 70% of long term prison inmates grew up without a father.
• 70% of juveniles in reform schools are growing up without a father.
• Children growing up with a single mother are 3.5 times as likely to get suspended from school as kids growing up with a father and a mother.
Why?
Why does the father make such a difference?
Boys without fathers are more likely to submit to the authority of a local gang, a tried-and-tested path to long term social pathology.
And without a father to protect her honor and safety, girls are more likely to succumb to the coercive sexual advances of older males and become impregnated at a very young age, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
All of this social pathology is self-perpetuating, producing a sort of caste system in America of haves and have-nots.
The cost to tax-payers in social and economic terms is staggering.
Our posterity is being condemned to lives of poverty in the name of “reproductive freedom,” for that is what fuels the growing illegitimacy trends.
For all of the discussion about same-sex marriage, the larger issue is heterosexual marriage. Children need a mom and a dad who are married. The data is irrefutable. Children who have it enjoy lives filled with hope and opportunity. Children without a married mom and dad have less hope, less opportunity. And “tax cuts for the rich” have nothing to do with it.
Great job, Tom! i like the fact that you use facts! i think many of us have a sense of the realities and their implications. The facts make it hard to refute.
Many years ago, H. Ross Perot, of all people, was asked what one thing would be most salutory in terms of improving our nation. Without batting an eye, he said “to have intact and responsible parents/families.” i have often thought that was the wisest thing he said!
After working in the medical world for years and now as a volunteer with the Gabriel Project and with Agape Pregnancy Center, it is so easy to see the reality of what single parenthood does to the child and the family and to society. Women have allowed themselves to be used, all in the name of sexual freedom. Freedom is not free, it always comes with a price, and it’s the children who pay the biggest price. It’s such a huge problem I feel overwhelmed at times. Thank you, Tom, for taking the time to do some research on this issue. I will be using it to educate some of the young people that I meet.
I agree wholeheartedly with you, Tom! Your scholarly setting forth of the statistical facts proves that the traditional family relationship is society’s best and only hope! Furthermore, back in the beginning of time, God set out His Perfect Plan for the family, and we would do well to realize that counterfeit marriage and rampant immorality that is being touted by so many today is responsible for much of society’s ills today.
[…] In other words, if someone is upset with their spouse, divorce may seem like an easy out, because it is easier to get, thanks to no-fault divorce. The impact on our society is measurable, as this blog pointed out two days ago (How to condemn a child to poverty.) […]