Quote: (02-11-2015 05:51 PM)Native Baltimoron Wrote:
For the indolent poor, however, children are an economic benefit, because they receive more welfare, both in cash payments and financial assistance with housing, food, and healthcare. For them, it is actually a rational choice to have more children. Not only that, greater access to food and better prenatal care are improving fertility in the lower class, which historically was not high.
I can only assume that you did not grow up in a low-income household if you really think the average poor family sees an unexpected pregnancy as an economic benefit and makes a rational decision to breed in order to up their income. It's far from the case, I assure you, and in most low-income homes I spent time in growing up, there's little going on in the way of rational decision-making to begin with.
I'm not saying I support these government programs, but such a person would be far better off manipulating men for child support than bringing up a kid just to work the system.
I grew up in a low-income home, with a mom who worked three jobs and still needed welfare at times just to make ends meet. Raising three boys on her own while the dads were on drugs or in prison. I remember her getting knocked up once with a fourth too, and I remember the fear in her eyes and her crying all night as she considered the mess she'd gotten herself into.
Sure, it was her own doing, but that's a conversation for another day. Regardless of how I feel about the decisions she made in this regard, I can say with a touch of pride that she eventually rejected the welfare system and chose to scratch out her living without - we were a case study of a family who needed it, but she was too proud to put up with all the prying that comes with it and probably too proud to keep taking handouts.
In any case, raising children when poor is fucking hard (at least with the standards of modern society surrounding you), outside assistance or not. And those monthly cash injections don't affect much when the recipient is shit at handling money to begin with - it's typically spent before it even arrives.
Sometimes the foodstamps were the only reason we ate. Though, like many welfare parents, my mom often sought out local stores that would let her trade them for cigs, booze, and cash. Not because that was her diabolical nature but because that's a mentally poor person's relationship with currency.
Low income people who are less proud than my mom welcome the extra money but I doubt many plot as deep as you're suggesting to get it. Most have more kids because they're more ignorant and don't give enough thought to long-term consequences when making decisions in the moment. It's part of the reason they're poor in the first place. Not to mention they've probably got more time for sex since they've only got so much money to do other things.
Sure, there are crazy people out there hustling the system, but they are not the norm, and those ones are typically just not bright enough to know their system of making money digs new holes faster than it fills.
Again, I'm not supporting welfare systems or asserting that we should inject more cash into them, but anyone who grew up in a home that needed welfare, and around other people who could never quite get their lives together enough to wean themselves off of it, can tell you that this idea of it creating entire bastard families out of its sheer generosity is just absurd. I think the flaws in the system can be exposed without completely demonizing the people who use it and overexaggerating the misuse.
I also think your assessment of middle class families is off. Middle class families, as another poster pointed out, aren't exactly the smart winners of society - they're just the ones who've played decent enough damage control to not sink to the bottom (yet). We're talking about people who are stuck smack dab in the current of consumerism, and I don't think they're completely considering how heavy of a liability a child can be - if they're having less kids, it's probably for other reasons. I think there's a real pressure in the middle class to have those trophy kids as a sign of how "successful" they are.
Note: I'm talking American culture. If you're talking about England, that could explain some major differences.
Beyond All Seas
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling