11. The Destruction of the American Family
From July 4, 1776, the date when we issued our Declaration and severed our relationship with England, until 1965, for 189 years, the American family was the strongest political and economic unit in our republic. A mom and dad, as a team, provided for their children and had control over their lives. In 1965, Johnson's War on Poverty started America on a path to dependence. Prior to the welfare increases in 1965, 5% of white families were single-parent, and 15% of African-American families were single-parent. However, something happened in 1965 that would eventually erode the family unit in America over time – an expansion of welfare. The Thirty and a Third Rule, along with Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), paid women to have children outside of wedlock. The beginning of Medicaid and Medicare in 1965 opened up huge future liabilities for the US that had not existed before. Although the rules would change, the direction and future liability of so-called entitlement and welfare programs would not.
Why is it so important that children have a mom and a dad to raise them? Why did Israel give up the kibbutz system to raise children, although 2% of Israel still has kibbutzim? Because they, too, discovered that a kibbutz did not replace a mom and a dad. In recent years, the kibbutz system in Israel has largely been reformed and no longer practices the utopian communal raising of children. A family, comprising a mom and a dad, is the most efficient way to provide for and instill emotional stability and direction in children.
Look around the world today and observe how families are holding up in other countries. The Russia Longitudinal Study reports that 18% of Russian mothers raise their children alone. The National Institute of Health reports that 3% of Chinese mothers raise their children alone, 4% of Nigerian mothers, and 5% of Indian mothers raise their children alone. Additionally, the Tehran Times reports that 7.2% of Iranian families are single-parent.
The traditional family changed after 1965 when the economic bond within the family was broken by government intervention. The federal government paid mothers to have babies outside of wedlock, without a legally involved father, relieving him of his economic responsibility to the child.
Does violent behavior correlate with fatherless children? A high percentage of gang members come from 'father-absent' homes (Davidson, 1990). According to the Census Bureau (2011), children from absent-father homes are four times more likely to live in poverty. Children who grow up in a home where a father is not present are at greater risk of abusing alcohol and other drugs (Hoffman, 2002). Family structure and the lack of parental involvement predict juvenile delinquency (Coley and Medeiros, 2007).
A recent Pew Research Center study of 130 countries and territories found that the US has the highest rate of children living in single-parent families in the world. The economics of paying women outside of wedlock to have children dramatically increased the breakup of the family after 1965 when President Johnson initiated increased transfer payments.
In 2021, the Department of Justice stated that 57% of African-Americans, 33% of Hispanics, and 25% of whites live in single-parent homes. According to Pew Research, 24 million children under 18, which is a third of all American children, live in single-family homes.
On March 15, 2023, the House Budget Committee Chair Jody Arrington issued a report: "Biden's Budget expands welfare without work incentives, trapping a new generation of Americans in poverty and dependence with $2.6 trillion in new Entitlement Program spending. In fiscal 2022, the Federal Government spent $1.19 trillion on more than 80 different welfare programs."
This does not account for the costs incurred by the justice system and mental health system that the 24 million children from single-parent families place on society. Perhaps Mr. Biden ought to work on this significant social problem tied to entitlement and welfare payments to restore and repair the American family. How about a federal law (with state subsidies to enforce it) that requires proven (DNA) and admitted fathers to support their kids with a percentage of their income? Instead, we are funding foreign democracies at a significant cost when we don't have the money, while our democracy at home remains weakened at the most fundamental level. Holding people responsible for the children they create and not paying women to have children out of wedlock would be a start.
Have a blessed week!
Tony Christ