"WELFARE QUEENS"

My old friend Kevin responds in Real Art comments to a part of my last post:

I think his point about "rewarding bad behavior" was aimed at welfare mothers who, even though they are in dire financial straits, continue to have more and more children and whose monthly dole goes up each time a new child is born. When you can't afford your own life it is irresposible to keep creating more dependents, especially considering that planned parenthood as well as many other organizations provide free birth control. This goes beyond welfare though. Many people not on welfare continue to have 3rd 4th and fifth children because of some rosy nostalgic memory of life on the farm. Single people and couples without children or with only one child foot the bill (for education, social services etc) through taxes while the parents of the big families take a tax cut.

To be honest, I actually do understand the rationale behind this concept of “reward” and welfare. My point in saying that I don’t understand is to make obvious that there are some rather dubious assumptions on which this concept is based.

Some conservatives, in the Rush Limbaugh vein, have actually been ridiculous enough to suggest that many “welfare queens” have more babies for the express purpose of upping their welfare take. While I must admit that such a thing may very well have happened here and there, because in the wide weird world of human behavior anything is possible, as far as I know there is absolutely no evidence, no study, no academically reputable research that supports that this occurs in any significant numbers that makes discussion on this topic even worth it. In reality, people don’t get pregnant in order to get a bigger welfare check.

However, I don’t think that this is exactly what Chris is suggesting. He’s coming from a point of view that seems more reasonable. The assumption here is that the welfare state creates a safety net that, as Kevin says, allows women “in dire financial straits (to) continue to have more and more children;” the unstated part of this assumption is that, without this safety net, because they would bear the brunt of the financial costs, these women would behave more rationally, and be much more careful about getting pregnant.

The problem with this is the assumption that people behave rationally where sex and love are concerned—this is also compounded by the fact that a very large percentage of single mothers are under the age of 18, emotionally and intellectually immature. It’s probably safe to say that most people aren’t really thinking about how much it’s going to cost to raise a child while in the heat of passion. The welfare state just doesn’t enter into the equation at this level of the problem: welfare cannot be considered a “reward” because “bad behavior” is motivated by entirely different reasons than money, which Kevin touches on with his comment about “some rosy nostalgic memory of life on the farm.”

Indeed, this echoes the same problem that has beguiled economists for years with their assumption of the “rational consumer.” It sounds very reasonable to say that if X happens, then most people with half a brain are going to do Y: in reality, people make choices for all sorts of irrational reasons. Only now are some economists beginning to wake up to this fact, but it will probably take years for these ideas to filter down to the general public. Sadly, this concept of “rewarding bad behavior” will, no doubt, linger for decades.

The only real way to deal with this problem is to get REALLY SERIOUS about sex education, birth control, and abortion. Comprehensive sex ed must begin in kindergarten or earlier, and must be an ongoing school subject all the way through every child’s school career. Birth control needs to be available everywhere, and for free. I’m talking goldfish bowls full of condoms on every teacher’s desk, the pill available in the school nurse’s office. The social stigma against abortion must go—it’s that simple.

Talk of financial incentives or disincentives is just talk. It’s not going to do a damned thing one way or the other to end the problem of unwanted children.

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