10-17-2016, 05:14 PM
Some people transcend the difficulties of life. Some difficulties overpower people. With those difficulties that don't completely destroy just about everyone, the ability of people to transcend those difficulties may matter more than the difficulties. Congratulations, taramarie! The choice between welfare and hunger is one that I would choose easily in favor of welfare. Of course some well isolated from consequences and unable to feel guilt of their choices (someone else starves) find the choice easy.
Yes, the single mother is often the result of a runaway father, father cast out for good reason (like abuse) widowhood, or divorce. There may be no conscionable choice except welfare in some cases. Many jurisdictions have been going after the runaway father, only to find that there is nothing behind him. He may be at most a marginal and sporadic participant in the economy.
Crackdowns on welfare generally backfire, doing more harm to children on the edge than causing people to decide to work two jobs for bare sustenance (the usual objective of the economic Right in America). Creating a wholesome environment for one's children is itself a difficult effort, as much intellectual as economic.
Yes, the single mother is often the result of a runaway father, father cast out for good reason (like abuse) widowhood, or divorce. There may be no conscionable choice except welfare in some cases. Many jurisdictions have been going after the runaway father, only to find that there is nothing behind him. He may be at most a marginal and sporadic participant in the economy.
Crackdowns on welfare generally backfire, doing more harm to children on the edge than causing people to decide to work two jobs for bare sustenance (the usual objective of the economic Right in America). Creating a wholesome environment for one's children is itself a difficult effort, as much intellectual as economic.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.