Graybeard points out that the issue of crime and poverty is not as much about color, but is about culture. I agree, and I think that it is deliberate. Let me explain:
Marriage is a losing proposition financially for most men. If a man is working for a living, that is. He is faced with a choice: marry a woman who works and has a career, in which case the taxes on the married couple are higher than they are on two working individuals; or marry a woman who doesn't work, and gain the additional tax deduction at the expense of having to support someone financially and take the risk of being sentenced to a life of servitude in the event of a divorce like this poor bastard.
On the other side of the coin, the woman has little incentive to marry, either. At the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder, there are all sorts of government programs and handouts that are there for the taking if you are a single mother. Subsidize something and you get more of it. At the upper end, child support is a lucrative subsidy for a single mother that has children by a wealthy man.
The stigma of fatherless children is gone. Now, being a single mother gets a woman sympathy rather than scorn. Children as young as 12 years old are striving to become pregnant, and then many of them are pushing the children off onto their own parents, and the grandparents that should be enjoying their later years are spending them raising a second generation of offspring. This is why 22% of our nation's children are living in poverty, and the problem is getting worse. Among minorities, the problem is even more severe: 38% of black children, and 32% of Hispanic children fall below the poverty line.
The number one indicator of living a life of poverty is being born to a single parent, and the number two is being born to a parent that is under the age of 25. Nearly half of all children being born in the US are being born to unwed mothers, many of them under the age of 18. The problem becomes self perpetuating.
What is happening is that we are penalizing people for working and being
productive, and subsidizing them for creating more people who will be
dependent on government handouts. With poverty disproportionately affecting blacks, many of them see this as proof of racism and demand more handouts, thus making the problem worse. So many of them become angry at a perceived racist economy and turn to crime.
You and Graybeard are correct. It's the culture, not the race that is causing this problem.
ReplyDeleteI will note that while percentages are important, it's also important to look at the raw numbers. Since a far larger proportion of the US population is white, in raw numbers more whites are on welfare.
That being the case, we should look at the cultures of poor white, black, hispanic and other groups to see if and how they differ.
I think the answers will be enlightening.
I would also suggest that the stigma of receiving "welfare" is long gone. A lot of euphemisms are used for what was once seen as living off of the taxpayers. We can't be stigmatizing people now, can we?
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