Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
4 of Every 10 Single Moms at or Below Poverty Level
The latest poverty rate, 13.2%, is at its highest level since 1997. But according to the Institute for Public Accuracy, single moms are hit hardest. 38.9% of them are living below the poverty level. No bailouts for them. If they get hungry enough, they can just eat their kids.
25 comments:
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We may be the 1st country in the history of mankind to neglect the welfare of its citizenry to the point of national collapse in favor of supporting the citizenry of other nations (ex. Iraq, Afghanistan, foreign aid, bailing out foreign banks, etc.)
ReplyDeleteThe economy has become so complicated that failure (and starting over) seems like the only way out at times.
ReplyDeleteExactly. I got mine, screw them. Screw healthcare reform, screw education, screw the poor, the weak, screw everyone. I got my Jesus, my gun and keep your government hands off my Medicare.
ReplyDeleteOur country's poor are obese and have cable and dvrs and cell phones and i-pods.
ReplyDeleteThe best way to prevent being a poor mom is to keep your calves together before graduating high school and before getting a wedding ring.
As Bill Clinton loved to preach: let's look at root causes. The answer here is quite simple.
As long as a teeeaged sexlife is glorified, and the girls are treated like heroines in a Kafka novel by schools and parents, and young men feel no resposibility to these girls it will happen. SOme do it intentionally so that they have a family, they are desperate for a family, the parents are MIA in the kids lives. Some , tragically, have no isea who the father is.
ReplyDeleteThese girls are tragic at best, but society has disposed of the idea of taking resposibilty for one's actions and until that Ideal is back in the lives of parents, teachers, and youths alike single family under the poverty line will continue to burgeon.
What are we left with now? Girls with babies below the poverty line, or grandparent with second families (and health problems) being driven below the posverty line by accepting their children's resposibility.
Until we again glorify the family ,
hard work, and resposnsibilty, instead of Madonna, Mylie Cyrus and push up bras for 10 year olds, this will continue to happen
It is an indicator of cultural breakdown. Lets help the children and their children,and make their welfare tied to participation, educationa nd parntal performance, but also lets take a long look at ourselves and what we promote from the time they are toddlers.
Working in downtown A-town has been very educational for me. I grew up rather pampered, and my early professional life was alongside other professionals. Now that I work downtown, I am exposed to poverty on a daily basis, and I am getting to personally know a few single mothers who were raised by other single mothers.
ReplyDeleteOne observation I have is that these single mothers have received "respect" and admiration from their peers upon becoming pregnant. There is absolutely NO negative backlash from society when a teen girl becomes pregnant. In fact, they seem to receive an elevated societal status. This is hard for me to understand, but I have seen it firsthand. Boys are considered cool for fathering children - the more the better. (And if they father lots of children from lots of girls, that is even better in the eyes of their peers.) And girls are considered more valuable and attractive if they have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were, at one point, worthy of a male's attention. (And therefore pregnant.) Peer pressure today actually ENCOURAGES pregnancy at a very early age.
These pregnancies are not unwanted or unplanned - quite the contrary. Some girls today, in some areas, work very hard to find a boy to impregnate them.
Not only do peers encourage children to make children, but families are also somewhat guilty. While a mother may weep upon hearing the news that her 15 year old daughter is pregnant, once she's done crying, she turns towards treating the pregnant teen like royalty. This could mean driving an hour for the perfect donut for the mom-to-be, or throwing huge parties to celebrate the new baby, or providing a space for the mom and baby to live. This is a major reason why so many folks live together in places like Allentown - there are no fathers to join forces with the mother and create their own home.
The nail in these families' economic coffins is that once children enter the picture, the gov't handouts can begin in earnest, in the form of food stamps, cash assitance, free healthcare, etc. And, if a single mom chooses to work, she can kiss these handouts goodbye. What would you choose - working for $8 an hour and trying to find daycare and transportation, OR staying home with the kids and taking the handouts?
We can talk about the economics of this horrible situation, but the reality is that societal pressures will continue to rule the day no matter what the economic consequences of single motherhood might be. Many of us may not understand this societal dynamic, but until we recognize the reality of this peer pressure dynamic, we really are spinning our wheels.
And, of course, the bottom line is that when it comes to kids, the woman really is in charge. It is up to women to choose birth control or self control. Girls are the ones who will bear the burden of children, in more ways than one. Unless we can convince girls that their peers are idiots and they simply need to keep their pants on and study hard, those poverty numbers will only increase.
And when they turn 18, these girls will be able to vote.
ReplyDeleteDo you think they will vote for someone who preaches personal responsibility, whose message may force them to look in the mirror for the solution to their problems? Or will they support someone who would tell them how special they are, and if they keep cranking out kids, so what? They deserve free health care and a greater share of the wealth produced by those who chose a different path.
My thoughts as to what monkey momma spoke upon... simply put, the outlook for a well paying job is poor. Society financially encourages teen motherhood.
ReplyDeleteI seen 1st hand as well. Here you have teens in HS who either can receive gov't checks or work hard and spend huge $'s to further their education with the very real possibility that there will be no job payoff. Rightly or wrongly there was once a stigma to unwed pregnancy. That stigma is no longer there.
In some cases it is legally and financially advantageous to divorce and sneak around living together. I've know couples who've done it to receive checks or avoid the legal responsibly when a business is listed in both names.
I'm sure there are lots of legitimate stories, but I feel the figures you've stated are bloated by those who are simply gaming-the-system. Ethics and morality simply doesn't carry the stigma it once did by society and even worse religious groups now offer compassionate social services over the once condemnation they imposed. This in order to garner more needy members, enabling them to receive funding grants and donations they otherwise would not receive.
Each person should be judged for their individual circumstance, but speaking in general terms... I think this be the case.
Obama will fix everything, be patient.
ReplyDeleteObama is currently changing the oil and performing warranty work on my Chevy.
ReplyDeleteHe'll get to poor mothers shortly.
It is an undeniable truth that when you hav emore people taking from the government than giving, the government nor thae people can prosper. This system will only serve to fulminate more poverty.
ReplyDeleteHow refreshing to have a President who cares so much like Obama!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful!
We are so blessed.
You go Obama!
I just saw some STUPID single mother at Wal-Mart buying a 12 pack of Pepsi for $4.88.
ReplyDeleteRight next to that were 4-packs for $1.00. If she wasn't so dumb she could have bought 3 of them for $3.00 and saved $1.88....or even better yet, she should have stocked up when the supermarkets had them for $2.00 a 12-pack.
No wonder they have no money...dont know how to shop.
Monkey momma
ReplyDeleteGreat post and ever so true. we have certainly made a mess of things. We allow our daughters and granddaughters to walk the streets and the halls of our schools looking like women of the evening. We now have a major orgainzation ACORN, helping a pimp and a prostitute set up a whore house for illegal female aliens age 13. As we know there will be a lot more to this story. ACORN has received tens of millions of public dollars.
Worse yet is the fact that moms dress like there daughters so they can be the pal not the mom. More importantly we have forgotten or have chosen to ignore teaching our girls to say no. Boys are just as bad with hanging out underwear and fathers who also want to be their kids buddy not the dad.
Let's recall the words of Benjanmin Franklin, "do not let the poor become to comfortable in their poverty". Well, folks, that is what we have done.
Progressive Liberals love single moms.
ReplyDeleteVoter base, don't you know.
Cranking out a whole new generation of future voters dependent on government entitlement programs, too.
Seems like everything is going just fine in Utopia.
Monkey Momma,
ReplyDeleteThank you for one of the best written, most enlightening comments I've ever read.
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ReplyDeleteReferring to someone w/ a disparaging name is unnecessarily personal. I have deleted a comment that does that.
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ReplyDeleteWhat I was speaking about earlier...
ReplyDeleteLoving Couple Divorces To Stay Afloat Financially
..."after repeatedly refinancing their house to pay medical bills and living expenses, they're broke. To improve their chances of growing old together, they've filed for divorce"
What I was speaking about earlier...
ReplyDeleteLoving Couple Divorces To Stay Afloat Financially
..."after repeatedly refinancing their house to pay medical bills and living expenses, they're broke. To improve their chances of growing old together, they've filed for divorce"
OMG- Bernie you've gone moderated!
ReplyDelete:-)
When this blog is undergoing a troll attack, I enable moderation while I take out the garbage. It usually only lasts 20 or 30 minutes.
ReplyDelete