Reducing Poverty by Revitalizing Marriage: Advice for Obama

Robert Rector, Senior Research Fellow for Welfare Policy at The Heritage Foundation, discusses how President-elect Obama can keep his pledge to reverse the decline of marriage in the United States, thereby reducing child poverty, welfare dependence, drug or alcohol abuse, crime, teen pregnancy, and other societal problems.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Barack
• Obama;
• marriage;
• marriage
• education;
• War
• on
• Poverty;
• child
• poverty;
• low
• income;
• welfare;
• government
• assistance;

[unodepoalli]

I have a better idea.....end welfare

[bertly71]

It is hard growing up in a single parent family. Idealy it should be a complete family unit of a Mother and Father. Unfortunately we live in a less than ideal world and need to make the best of our situations. We need not sit back and wring our hands and look to the government to help us. Government help should be a last resort because it can cause dependency and victimology.

[whoo689]

Marriage doesn't mean a DAMN THING with regards to poverty if the place you live in has low opportunity, not many high-paying jobs, poor educational system, and so on.

[mykole84]

the only way the can promote marriage is to drop the divorce laws. give men more reproductive rights as in having a choice in abortion. also stop alimony for women who dont wanna stay in the marriage. stop letting women give other women advice on men. marriage is good but with the laws cohabitation is more pratical economically. no one wants to lose half.

[YodatheJedi12]

Video: Seriously, Obama? Good luck getting him to follow your vision!

Alas, I think a lot of politicians realise that marriage and children growing up in secure homes is important for our future, but it would be unpopular to try to accomplish it.

[thoth81]

Good point. It amuses me when those who label themselves "conservative" (and thus for smaller gov't) have no qualms about using gov't to enforce their personal beliefs on others - in this case, having the gov't "encourage traditional marriage". Come on conservatives, stay consistent. Or you could vote libertarian and be rid of your cognitive dissonance ;-)

[13otany13ay]

whoo689, you and all these "studies" oversimplify the situation and confuse cause and effect. If failed marriage where to produce poverty, then Hollywood where a poorhouse.

The economical situation of a person has effects on the whole familly and vice versa. But if you loose your job, you lose your job, no matter wether you are married, single or gay.

Studies attempting to proove marriage would protect one from poverty are like studies proclaiming a correlation between rainy days and suicide.