i agree... also considering that the US uses so much of the world's resources, there should definitely be a baby limit law... assuming you live in the US of course
I too agree to a point. Some couples can have several children and give them the love and support that they need. But then again the ones that are on pulic assistants that just keep popping them out. They don't work so all they have to do all day is lay on their back and keep producing more. And they are either not smart enough for birth control or they know the more they have the bigger their public assistance check will be.
Actually, a federal study showed that the vast majority of women with children on public assistance have only 1 or 2 kids. I've worked as a social worker in both the inner city and rural Appalachia and I can tell you that poor mothers aren't thinking about "the check" when they get pregnant. Many who "keep having babies" (again, most have only 2 kids) are in unstable relationships. If they ask their partner to wear a condom, he will refuse and maybe even leave. Some of these men actually want the woman to "have their baby" as proof of her love and also as a way to make her dependent.
Everyone who works in social work knows that the whole "welfare queen" was a stereotype the Republicans created to push through welfare reform. Many of the women who were held up as examples of "scam artists" had severely disabled children or their own bad health and couldn't work --no matter how many kids they had. Plus, in most states now there is a limit on the number of years a family can remain on AFDC type programs no matter how many kids are in the household.
You've got my vote bro; one kid, then mandatory tube tie during the birth of a second. Seems hardly a night goes by without there being a segment on our local Fl. news about yet another poor, fat, typically but not always black momma, with 6 little ones, another in the oven, and a new financial problem cause her wheels were stolen or the roof fell in.
Hmm, I wonder WHO benefits from these news stories? Realistically, if it helped the mothers and their kids there wouldn't be so many stories. On the other hand, if it just helped white politicans get votes from ignorant and racist rednecks, that would make more sense.
I'm living in West Virginia and have seen for myself that are more white people on welfare in this country than black people or Latinos. And most of them are people without kids who are addicted to oxycontin.
What part of WV, I too live here and I know from talking to people that when the time runs out and they are taken off assistance another program picks up and takes up the slack. I would have to agree that most of the ones here on welfare are white. I know of one lady that had 5 children because with 5 you get the maximum amout of assistance, plus HUD pays her rent, there for the only bills they have is power water, cable and phone, plus a cell phone. They seem to have the money to party, when I worry about how I am going to pay the bills and put food on the table. (they get their food free also with what is called foodstamps) I know jobs are hard to find I too have been unemployed in the past, but in most cases if you really want to work you can find a job doing something if it is flipping burgers. And children learn from observation so it is only natural that kids raised on welfare will grow up only to have children of their own and sign up on public assistance.
Which programs are we talking about?
WIC which gives milk, cheese, cereal, eggs, baby formula, and tuna to pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants, and children under 5? That's obviously a waste of your tax dollars. There's absolutely no benefit to making sure that these individuals don't suffer from malnutrition. So what if low birth weight and failure to thrive are known to cause both mental retardation and ADHD later in life.
FARMS which gives free or reduced price breakfast and lunch meals to school children? Yet another ridiculous use of government money. How is it my problem if hungry kids fall asleep in class or are so disruptive that they keep the whole class from learning.
Maybe you're talking about Medicaid? Yeah, I definitely don't want to pay for kids to have well-baby visits including shots and screenings for juvenile diabetes and other life-threatening conditions.
And HUD vouchers are the biggest waste of money --whose idea was it that families shouldn't have to sleep in their cars or in homeless shelters.
Yup, desperately poor kids are really spoiled today. I remember when we did things right and let them grow up hungry, sick, and in tar paper shacks. Sigh, God I miss the good old days!
I grew up on welfare. It's not as easy as you people think. My mom wanted to work, but its hard without a car.
There are worse things than growing up poor.
My husband's from a wealthy family (his father is a prominent atty from a famous Virginian family and his mother a former deb who raised champion dogs). There was plenty of money for my husband and his sister's education and so on, but neither parent was ever home. They basically were raised by the housekeeper, black woman with an 8th grade education and 6 kids of her own. "Miz Donna" was the one who went to school plays and taught my sister in law who to put on eyeliner. They were millionares, but emotionally impoverished.
My husband envies my close knit family. And my dad never made more than $20,000 a year. My mom didn't work because there are 9 kids in my family. We all wore hand me downs, ate a lot of macaroni and cheese, and slept 2 to a bed until I left home at 18. We were white trash from an economic point of view, but my parents were always there for us.
So laughter fills my parents' house at Christmas --all of us come home with our own spouses and kids-- while my in-laws sit in a restaurant in Barbados alone.
" - - while my in-laws sit in a restaurant in Barbados alone." -Congrats on a well written and expressed message which seems to me indicative of a good education and a well-ordered mind. Having said that, you might consider that a lot of folks enjoy privacy, especially in their later years, and the idea of a large family gathering, even during holidays(perhaps ESPECIALLY during holidays), just isn't everyone's cup of tea. It very much depends on your POV(point of view).... Being raised in a large family usually conditions folks to having a constant hubbub going on, but with others a little of that goes a very long way. Your in-laws, quite likely, are probably enjoying themselves at that restaurant in Barbados quite nicely, thank you very much.
Actually, they make a point of inviting us and my sister-in-law every year. But why spend a holiday with emotionally distant people when you can be with warm ones. So, we always say no. My husband didn't grow up in a large family, yet he enjoys mine immensely.
