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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRand Paul's Deluded Fantasy that Marriage Magically Fixes Poverty
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/rand-pauls-deluded-fantasy-marriage-magically-fixes-povertySen. Rand Paul is, once again, confused. Recently, he told a Chamber of Commerce gathering that being married with kids versus unmarried with kids is the difference between living in poverty and not, and that the government should sell that message.
Sen. Marco Rubio is similarly flummoxed. The truth is, he said, that the greatest tool to lift people from poverty is one that decreases child poverty by 82 percent. But it isnt a government program. Its called marriage. Fifty years ago today, when the War on Poverty was launched, 93 percent of children in the United States were born to married parents. By 2010, that number had plummeted to 60 percent. It shouldnt surprise us that 71 percent of poor families with children are families that are not headed by a married couple.
Conservative pundits, for their part, are falling in line, with the Washington Posts Kathleen Parker claiming that marriage creates a tiny economy fueled by a magical concoction of love, selflessness and permanent commitment that holds spirits aloft during tough times. The New York Times Ross Douthat takes for granted that marriage leads to economic stability, and David Brooks has simply thrown up his hands: It would be great if we knew how to boost marriage rates, but we dont, he writes.
So why dont poor women take that simple step, get married and end their poverty? The answer, of course, is that things are not so simple, and that despite conservative ideologys faith in it, marriage is not the cure for poverty.
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Rand Paul's Deluded Fantasy that Marriage Magically Fixes Poverty (Original Post)
xchrom
Feb 2014
OP
RKP5637
(67,088 posts)1. Another damn fool! n/t
enki23
(7,786 posts)2. How could a brilliant objectivist and critical thinker have such a hard time with causality?
Yeah. No. I know the answers to that one already.
get the red out
(13,460 posts)3. Too bad he knows nothing about Kentucky
The eastern section of the state disproves this. Lots of married couples in abject poverty.