Poverty Solution

The quote from the final paragraph in the excerpt: "The best anti-poverty program for children is a stable, intact family," just about says it all, in this article from the Ethics & Public Policy Center.

The excerpt.

“In thinking through the best way to help truly disadvantaged Americans regain access to the American Dream, it's helpful to disaggregate the issue and identify its shifting nature.

“There is, as there has always been, an economic component to poverty and opportunity in America, including growth, access to capital, and mobility. And those things remain crucial. But I want to submit for consideration a proposition which has significant empirical backing: the main driver of poverty in America today has to do with culture, mores, and lifestyle choices, not with economics.

“My former White House colleague Ron Haskins points out that "Census data show that if all Americans finished high school, worked full time at whatever job they then qualified for with their education, and married at the same rate as Americans had married in 1970, the poverty rate would be cut by around 70 percent." The best way to keep open the pathway to the American Dream, then, is through a "success sequence"; graduate from high school, get a job, get married, and then have babies.

“So what can we do to encourage more people to embrace this "success sequence"? By providing children with stable, orderly environments in which to grow up and to strengthen the institutions that shape the character and habits of the young.

“In practical terms, what am I talking about? First and foremost, it means we need more stable, intact families. The theologian Michael Novak once called the family the original and best department of health, education, and welfare. If families fail, other adults can help fill the breach. But it is very nearly impossible for other people and institutions to fully pick up the pieces.

“Children who are raised in broken families are far more likely to drop out of high school, use drugs, commit violent crimes, have children outside of marriage, develop mental health problems, become homeless, drop out of the labor force, go on welfare, and experience poverty. Indeed, the poverty rate for single-parent families is almost six-times the rate for married-couple families. "The best anti-poverty program for children is a stable, intact family," according to former Clinton administration officials William Galston and Elaine Kamarck.”