RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Birth Control, Abortion and the Rise of Single Motherhood Mon May 27, 2019 6:21 pm | |
| Typically, the conservative perspective on the rise of single motherhood and the breakdown of the traditional family unit places the blame on the shoulders of the liberal welfare state.
This theory is usually attributed to Charles Murray's work, Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980. The thrust of the theory is that the liberal welfare state incentivized single motherhood through welfare payments. The State acts as an ersatz father figure, relieving men of their traditional duties toward fatherhood and fidelity.
Unfortunately for us conservatives, the liberal welfare state theory does not hold up to scrutiny. As Akerlof, Yellen, and Katz observed:
AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) could not have played a major role in the rise of out-of-wedlock births because AFDC rose a great deal in the 1960s and fell in the 1970s (when eligibility requirements also became more stringent), while out-of-wedlock births rose continually. ... [T]he effects of welfare benefits estimated with cross-section and panel data are too small to account for more than a very small fraction of the rise in the out-of-wedlock birth ratio. (1)
Instead of the liberal welfare state, they attribute the rise in single-motherhood to the technology shock of birth control and, to a less extent, abortion.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/05/birth_control_abortion_and_the_rise_of_single_motherhood.html?fbclid=IwAR1PRHaLOt4oui-0IugLxj-pMQodicQ83lguKbQYi4AgagVp94x19meguck |
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