Download Social Class and Public Policy: The Impact of Government Programs on Marriage and Poverty and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! Social class and public policy I. Low Income Budget II. Video: Let’s Get Married Groups So why has marriage become so uncommon? Do you approve of the goals of these marriage movement programs” Do you believe they will be effective? docsity.com “New Deal” of the 1930s • Social Security Act of 1935 – One of its provisions was Aid to Dependent Children (“suitable homes” and “deserving poor”)… – Basically aimed at white widows and their children Locally administered. In the American south, African Americans were excluded docsity.com Effects of the War on Poverty • 1964-1972: Combined purchasing power of AFDC and food stamps rose 40% • Child poverty reached a low point of 14% in 1969 • By the early 1980s, it was up to 23% and it has fluctuated between 23% and 16% since that time docsity.com More Effects • % of single mothers collecting AFDC rose from 29% in 1964 to 63% in 1972 and the overall number of single mothers also rose in those years • Change from an overwhelmingly white program to a program in which the largest group of mothers and kids was black – The Great Migration – The National Welfare Rights Organization docsity.com Background to welfare reform • By 1993, Christopher Jencks (Rethinking Social Policy: Race, Poverty, and the Underclass), would term AFDC the “most unpopular social program in America” • Basic changes in the family; working and middle class mothers now in the work force so why should poor mothers be subsidized to stay at home docsity.com Let’s Get Married • Discussion Questions: • 1. Why do you think marriage has become rare among poor families? • 2. What are the strengths and weaknesses of a program like PREP? • 3. Can the government effectively promote marriage? docsity.com Childcare assistance TANF theoretically provides generous childcare assistance • Hays, Flat Broke with Children: “The good news for taxpayers and the bad news for poor single mothers and their children is that the majority of welfare clients never actually receive childcare subsidies.” • Why not? Fiscal crisis and state control docsity.com Is TANF a success? • In terms of getting women and children off welfare, yes… remember Aisha and Wanda in “Legacy” • But among the advanced industrial countries, Denmark and Finland lead the way with less than 3% of children in poverty. The United States is at the bottom of the list: Children’s Defense Fund docsity.com
