While direct connections are difficult to establish, it is worth noting that there is a chicken-egg effect of the welfare state, which began during the New Deal, but accelerated under President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s Great Society.
The rise in children born out of wedlock cannot be separated from the massive expansion of the welfare state under Johnson’s Great Society. In a report from the Mises Institute, the basic argument is that welfare disincentivizes marriage. In times past, when women had children out of wedlock, it meant an incredibly difficult life balancing whatever work and charity they could get. It also carried a social stigma (from our old friend civil society), which further disincentivized single motherhood.
Today, however, there are a host of social programs specifically for single mothers. A partial list of programs assisting single motherhood includes:
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) commonly known as “food stamps”
Women, Infants and Children Program (WIC), another food assistance program
Child Care Assistance Program, Head Start and Early Head Start, all daycare assistance programs
Section 8 housing assistance
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps single mothers pay their utilities
Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), health insurance assistance programs
Supplemental Security Income, often called “disability,” but accessible to those without bona fide physical disabilities
The Emergency Food Assistance Program and the National School Lunch Program, two more food assistance programs
These programs act as a disincentive toward family formation
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