Some quick and probably rather uneducated thoughts about welfare:
I understand where angry conservatives are coming from when they bash on welfare. They don't want their tax dollars going to someone who doesn't learn from their mistakes, who takes it, makes more mistakes, and then takes more money. It's understandable. They don't want their money going to teenagers who were "stupid" enough to have sex unprotected, and then got pregnant.
Okay, fair enough. Teens shouldn't be monetarily rewarded for getting pregnant in high school. It's their own fault, etc. What these people never seem to think about, however, are the children of these kids. We focus so much on "teen moms" (hell, apparently there's a reality show called "Teen Moms") that we forget about the ones that matter and that suffer the most; their children. These kids will quite often grow up in an incredibly negative environment, with parents that don't know how to be parents, that don't have enough money to buy them the essentials, that use the money they do have irresponsibly [I know, this isn't how every teen parent does things]. As a result, by the time they get into school, they haven't developed adequately to the point that they are ready to learn, and then they get held back, and then they don't get enough help with homework, and then they end up just like their parents did. And then, lo and behold, 16 years later, they get pregnant. Just like their parents.
Does welfare help this problem? Sometimes, probably. But also often not, I'm guessing. I don't have the statistics. Maybe Elie will? In any case, here's my question: how do we protect and make a better life for these kids before it's too late for them?
--Jon
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