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AVoiceOfReason · 10-01-2005, 06:20 AM

This from the Investor's Business Daily Op Ed Page of Sept 30, 2005. Anyone see a problem with the facts or disagree with the conclusions? I didn't.

___________________________
Un-Married With Children

Poverty: Post-Katrina critics constantly remind us that those who remained in New Orleans were largely black and poor. What they don’t tell us is that they were largely women and children.

Never mind that had Katrina roared through Appalachia, those stranded would have been largely white and poor. Race and poverty have been inextricably linked in the media and the Democratic caucus with the less-thanstellar post-Katrina effort.

Yet poverty is not a function of race, but of class. Common traits exist among the nonpoor — most are married and most got a good education. This is true regardless of race, and if those left behind in the Big Easy were largely poor and black, it is not because we haven’t thrown enough money at the problem. It may be because we have thrown too much.

More than $7 trillion has been spent on poverty programs since Lyndon Johnson launched the “War on Poverty” four decades ago. The Washington Post reported recently that the federal government has more than 80 poverty-related programs on which it spends about $500 billion annually.

Critics of the war in Iraq are legion, but critics of the war on poverty are hard to find. On which war has our money been more effectively spent? Have we really fought poverty or merely subsidized it?

In 1960, before the war on poverty was declared, only 28% of black females between the ages of 15 and 44 were never married, and the illegitimacy rate among blacks was 22%. Today, the never-married percentage has doubled to 56% and the illegitimacy rate has soared to around 70%.

Is this the result of racism and the legacy of slavery? No. What happened is that the war on poverty essentially destroyed the black family by replacing the adult male as the father figure and main provider in the family and then rewarding illegitimacy with a bigger check. If racism and discrimination were to vanish tomorrow, poverty would persist in direct proportion to the number of broken or single-parent families in our society. Of Americans of all races, only 6.4% of those living in married-couple families were below the poverty level in 2004, according to Census Bureau data. Among whites, only 6% of Americans in two-parent married households lived in poverty. Among blacks the figure was 6.9%. Among whites, 52% of children under the age of 5 in fatherless households were in poverty. Among blacks it was 58.1%. In the post-Katrina discussions, little attention was paid to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics that in 2003, 34.6% of all American births were to unmarried women, with the percentage among African-American women at 68.2%.

For Louisiana African-Americans the illegitimacy rate was 76%, and in inner-city New Orleans the figure was no doubt higher.

In a policy brief released by the Washington-based Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, an examination of 23 studies dealing with family structure and crime found the obvious — that neighborhoods with a high rate of illegitimacy have a high rate of crime, something that might help explain the post-Katrina looting.

With a lower rate of intact nuclear families, and a higher rate of illegitimacy, it should be no surprise that only 30% to 40% of black males graduate from high school, and that if they do, they emerge with the reading and math skills of a white seventh- or eighth-grader, regardless of per-pupil expenditures.

Remove the growing social, judicial and governmental stigma against heterosexual marriage and give minorities the means to escape failing schools.

That would be a recovery effort that makes sense.
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10-01-2005, 06:20 AM	#1 (permalink)
AVoiceOfReason Psycho Location: Greenwood, Arkansas	The Katrina Victims from New Orleans--IBD Op-ED This from the Investor's Business Daily Op Ed Page of Sept 30, 2005. Anyone see a problem with the facts or disagree with the conclusions? I didn't. ___________________________ Un-Married With Children Poverty: Post-Katrina critics constantly remind us that those who remained in New Orleans were largely black and poor. What they don’t tell us is that they were largely women and children. Never mind that had Katrina roared through Appalachia, those stranded would have been largely white and poor. Race and poverty have been inextricably linked in the media and the Democratic caucus with the less-thanstellar post-Katrina effort. Yet poverty is not a function of race, but of class. Common traits exist among the nonpoor — most are married and most got a good education. This is true regardless of race, and if those left behind in the Big Easy were largely poor and black, it is not because we haven’t thrown enough money at the problem. It may be because we have thrown too much. More than $7 trillion has been spent on poverty programs since Lyndon Johnson launched the “War on Poverty” four decades ago. The Washington Post reported recently that the federal government has more than 80 poverty-related programs on which it spends about $500 billion annually. Critics of the war in Iraq are legion, but critics of the war on poverty are hard to find. On which war has our money been more effectively spent? Have we really fought poverty or merely subsidized it? In 1960, before the war on poverty was declared, only 28% of black females between the ages of 15 and 44 were never married, and the illegitimacy rate among blacks was 22%. Today, the never-married percentage has doubled to 56% and the illegitimacy rate has soared to around 70%. Is this the result of racism and the legacy of slavery? No. What happened is that the war on poverty essentially destroyed the black family by replacing the adult male as the father figure and main provider in the family and then rewarding illegitimacy with a bigger check. If racism and discrimination were to vanish tomorrow, poverty would persist in direct proportion to the number of broken or single-parent families in our society. Of Americans of all races, only 6.4% of those living in married-couple families were below the poverty level in 2004, according to Census Bureau data. Among whites, only 6% of Americans in two-parent married households lived in poverty. Among blacks the figure was 6.9%. Among whites, 52% of children under the age of 5 in fatherless households were in poverty. Among blacks it was 58.1%. In the post-Katrina discussions, little attention was paid to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics that in 2003, 34.6% of all American births were to unmarried women, with the percentage among African-American women at 68.2%. For Louisiana African-Americans the illegitimacy rate was 76%, and in inner-city New Orleans the figure was no doubt higher. In a policy brief released by the Washington-based Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, an examination of 23 studies dealing with family structure and crime found the obvious — that neighborhoods with a high rate of illegitimacy have a high rate of crime, something that might help explain the post-Katrina looting. With a lower rate of intact nuclear families, and a higher rate of illegitimacy, it should be no surprise that only 30% to 40% of black males graduate from high school, and that if they do, they emerge with the reading and math skills of a white seventh- or eighth-grader, regardless of per-pupil expenditures. Remove the growing social, judicial and governmental stigma against heterosexual marriage and give minorities the means to escape failing schools. That would be a recovery effort that makes sense. _____________________________ __________________ AVOR A Voice Of Reason, not necessarily the ONLY one.