The American Spectator

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The probabilities of remaining involuntarily in poverty are remarkably low for those who: complete high school, once an adult, get married and stay married (even if not on the first try); stay employed, even at a wage and under conditions below their ultimate aims. Those who do these three traditional things may experience periods in poverty but are quite unlikely to stay involuntarily poor.

br> Or as the liberal Isabel Sawhill of the Urban League put it, “the poverty rate for those households where the primary wage earner had finished high school, was married, had no more than two children, and worked full time…was trivially small — 1 percent.”

So does that mean that everything is just fine with poverty and welfare in America? The answer is an emphatic no. The welfare system itself primarily causes the nonwork we see among the poor. It also strongly contributes to family break up, illegitimacy, and single parenthood. Most importantly of all, thorough welfare reforms are possible that would ensure the effective elimination of poverty in America, and eliminate all welfare incentives for non-work, illegitimacy, and single parenthood. Moreover, the new welfare system would cost taxpayers only a fraction of the current system. That will all be discussed in a future column.