3 ms·

Means tested welfare actively discourages marriage in poor people. As we’ve added more and more of these programs the divorce rate of poor people has skyrockete

Means tested welfare actively discourages marriage in poor people. As we’ve added more and more of these programs the divorce rate of poor people has skyrocketed. This has actively destroyed their communities and made them reliant on the state. The welfare state should reward and incentivize marriage. The tax system does for middle and high earners and you see lower rates of single parenthood. The fact you can lose benefits if you’re lower income and married is the worst possible incentive.

tootie 3y ago
Citation needed. Absence of a legal marriage does not preclude co-habitation and co-parenting. Especially for parents who may be doing something for the benefit of the children. Furthermore, if you created incentives to marry, you'd just be inundated with fake marriages done for financial benefit (a la citizenship marriages). Go google the phrase "medical divorce" as another data point. If you are worried the system is being gamed, adding more rules and loopholes is unlikely to solve anything. And you have to ask what outcome your are trying to incentive. This thread started talking about educational outcomes for kids. Marriage is not a particular useful end unto itself. I'd posit that just adopting universal healthcare would increase the marriage rate and do so by improving outcomes.
- nemo44x 3y ago
  Just do the most basic Google search. Here, I'll start for you: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK230345/#:~:text=This%20simple%20analysis%20shows%20that,correlated%20with%20single%2Dmotherhood%20rates https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK230345/#:~:text=This%2.... However, a majority of the newer studies show that welfare has a significantly negative effect on marriage or a positive effect on fertility rather than none at all. Because of this shift in findings, the current consensus is that the welfare system probably has some effect on these demographic outcomes. Based on this review, it is clear that a simple majority of the studies that have been conducted to date show a significant correlation between welfare benefits and marriage and fertility, suggesting the presence of such behavioral incentive effects. But it's also just obvious. And then the effects of kids from single-mother homes: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/are-children-raised-with-absent-fathers-worse-off/#:~:text=Children%20raised%20by%20single%20mothers,success%20in%20the%20labor%20market https://www.brookings.edu/articles/are-children-raised-with-.... This is all widely known and generally agreed on. That the outcomes of kids from single-mother homes are far worse than married coupled homes when you control for income, etc.

tootie 3y ago

Citation needed. Absence of a legal marriage does not preclude co-habitation and co-parenting. Especially for parents who may be doing something for the benefit of the children. Furthermore, if you created incentives to marry, you'd just be inundated with fake marriages done for financial benefit (a la citizenship marriages). Go google the phrase "medical divorce" as another data point. If you are worried the system is being gamed, adding more rules and loopholes is unlikely to solve anything. And you have to ask what outcome your are trying to incentive. This thread started talking about educational outcomes for kids. Marriage is not a particular useful end unto itself. I'd posit that just adopting universal healthcare would increase the marriage rate and do so by improving outcomes.

nemo44x 3y ago
Just do the most basic Google search. Here, I'll start for you: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK230345/#:~:text=This%20simple%20analysis%20shows%20that,correlated%20with%20single%2Dmotherhood%20rates https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK230345/#:~:text=This%2.... However, a majority of the newer studies show that welfare has a significantly negative effect on marriage or a positive effect on fertility rather than none at all. Because of this shift in findings, the current consensus is that the welfare system probably has some effect on these demographic outcomes. Based on this review, it is clear that a simple majority of the studies that have been conducted to date show a significant correlation between welfare benefits and marriage and fertility, suggesting the presence of such behavioral incentive effects. But it's also just obvious. And then the effects of kids from single-mother homes: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/are-children-raised-with-absent-fathers-worse-off/#:~:text=Children%20raised%20by%20single%20mothers,success%20in%20the%20labor%20market https://www.brookings.edu/articles/are-children-raised-with-.... This is all widely known and generally agreed on. That the outcomes of kids from single-mother homes are far worse than married coupled homes when you control for income, etc.