Our Character, Our Future: on Welfare & Poverty

Jewish support of welfare for blacks causes enmity

Encourage two-parent families instead of paying baby bonus

Current proposals for reform don’t go far enough. They entirely neglect the damaging impact that the system has had on family structure. It discourages marriage. It promotes single-parent, female-headed households. Instead of paying what amounts to a baby bonus to unwed mothers, we should find ways to provide a marriage bonus.

Unfortunately, present proposals merely add a work requirement to the baby bonus policy, and that’s not good enough. It’s right and necessary to encourage work rather than idleness. But for real welfare reform, we need to do more than fix the economic illogic of the welfare system--we need to work at mending the family structure it has helped to undermine.