It is worth noting for future reference that women having more children than the family could raise to adulthood is a very old phenomena.
Consequently, we can look to history for (partial) solutions.
- Apprenticeships
- Indentured servants
- Sign up for the military
- Become a sailor
- Signed off to be adopted
What is notable about these solutions is that the mother was not compensated beyond being relieved of the responsibility for feeding and clothing that child.
Does welfare have a retirement plan?
Suppose mama has nine kids in 12 years. Her income stream starts to dry up when the first kid clocks out of the system at 18 (earlier if he is incarcerated) and is completely gone by the time she is 45 (if she had her first kid at 15).
Maybe she watches grandkids (and her daughters get some kind of daycare subsidy from the state which they turn over to her) but as her daughter's children clock-out at 18, the daughters' welfare income stream starts dying and the grandmother's "daycare" income drops.
I don't think they are paying into Social Security with any of those "entitlement" incomes because they are not wages.
What am I missing? It looks to me like the whole gravy-train hits the wall sometime between when the woman hits 45-and-60.
Don't forget that as recently as the 1930's, typically at least 20% of children died before age 5 - and another portion died before adulthood.
ReplyDeleteAnd on farms, having lots of children provided free labor for a decade.
As mechanization increased, the need for labor declined proportionally and post WWII having many kids went from a benefit to a cost.
Jonathan
A fair amount of them become foster parents. As their children are leaving, they are taking in others to keep an equilibrium of people and government largess. Some will have a side hustle that they expand as time permits. An example I know of personally would visit thrift stores in the suburbs on a rotating basis. She purchased clothes, fixed them up and sold them. Some, sadly, let addiction and disease take them.
ReplyDeleteI have seen this myself. A neighbor had a couple of kids. However as hers aged she first had adopted some kids, then switched to being a Foster Parent. Some foster parents are inspected often and worse than by a Drill Sargent . However, as she was a minority I noted her inspection lasted only a couple of minutes. ( Or perhaps that was a coincidence ?) Although she eventually moved on to be closer to other family...I have seen others on Welfare get themselves declared unable to work and get SSI Disability.
DeleteWelfare queens seldom plan ahead beyond this weekend.
ReplyDeleteWhen their grift falters then they panic.
You're not missing much, ERJ. There is a difference in that the children "back in the day" were generally pushed into some kind of useful profession - soldier/sailor, semi-skilled or full skilled worker. I suspect that a higher percentage of children these days are perhaps contributing less back to society.
ReplyDeleteThere are three things that worry me: the rise of the welfare class, the abysmal state of K-12 schooling, and automation. Between these three, we will build up a permanently unemployable underclass.
I see some real social problems building now to erupt in 15 or 20 years.
Its already happening now... have you tried ordering fast food? If the manager isn't taking your order, you're better off using the app/screen/kiosk...
Delete"the mother was not compensated beyond being relieved of the responsibility for feeding and clothing that child."
ReplyDeleteOne of the primary purposes of so-called patriarchy was to ensure that a max number of kids and wives had a dad in the house. It was his legal responsibility to work and provide for them, not the mother's.
The modern 'family' court system (kidnap-extortion) emulates that, without providing either kids or their dads an actual family to be part of.
The church- two of my Dad’s sisters were nuns, taken in by the church at age 11 or 12. Neither was “called” nor had the luxury of waiting until adulthood to make their own decisions.
ReplyDeleteSlightly OT observations:
ReplyDeleteA former neighbor was a single black mom who raised two apparently successful kids and, until she recently retired with health issues, always had a fo$ter kid in the house. Her parenting style was strict and exemplary. I asked her to be my mom; she wisely declined, as retraining an adult is too much work.
My paternal grandmother had a shiftless husband whose major accomplishments were acting as trustee at the county jail and alienating his offspring. They were dirt-poor. She raised nine children; eight were productive citizens and the outlier eventually came around. I don't recall anyone ever mentioning welfare or food stamps.
Character matters.
Mom can still collect some or all benefits if the child goes to a college, gaming the system for 2-6 more years.
ReplyDeleteIn the case I am unfortunately familiar with, Mom then had a doctor certify she could not be employed do to mental illness. She collect until her timely death.
In the later 1970's and early '80s Feds had program 235 whose goal was to get poor folks into a new house's with a mortgage. One lady came through whose income was all from the Uncle Sam. Had 12 children under 18. Every time I saw the children all where well behaved.
ReplyDeleteThere are those who ‘play the system’, I’m sure you know. One worked for my former employer for awhile. She quit to get all the ‘single mother’ benefits without having to work.
ReplyDeleteI expect when these people lose the child benefits they will find another way keep living off other people’s money.
Southern NH