Poverty Policy by Theodore R. Marmor

Author:Theodore R. Marmor [Marmor, Theodore R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General, Poverty & Homelessness
ISBN: 9781351497589
Google: 4iAxDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 5145604
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1971-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

But Would It Alter Pate?

In that the payment is assured and substantial, the effects of preschool allowances would resemble the effects of fatherless child insurance. The two proposals differ in that one selects for aid all young children and the other children of any age who are socially orphaned. In cases of premarital pregnancy preschool allowances would exert a more neutral influence than FCI. Though FCI would provide an incentive for marriage, the family allowance would be available for the child whether or not his parents were married. The preschool allowance provides no incentive for marriage; in fact it assures an income to illegitimate children—who may need it most.

In any event, the large majority of families begin with marriage. Once a family was started, the preschool allowance would provide a poverty-free period of at least six years for most. Half of the children who would otherwise have been poor would find themselves in families with a substantial surplus of income over minimum requirements—substantial in any terms they might have known. As we have seen, the beginning of the family is the crucial period in which family and vocational patterns are established. Under a program of preschool allowances a family would have an income it could depend on at this critical time. It would be able to plan a move, a job change, or training with comparative certainty about its resources. The arrival of a child should not be an immediate financial blow for a family, one that precipitates the father to flight or abandonment of plans for self-advancement. Food, shelter, and clothing should be adequate, providing biological permission for optimism, pride, and ambition.

As their first children reached school age, families would experience the family cycle squeeze—but with modified force. Mothers and fathers would be in their mid-twenties or older, and family income would have advanced beyond its initial low point. Moreover, the family would be losing the preschool allowance in stages. The mother presumably would have chosen to stay home while her children were of preschool age. The children’s entrance into school would provide her with the incentive and opportunity to work. Her income would help take up the deficit left by the termination of the preschool allowance.13 Finally, school-centered programs and somewhat more adequate public assistance might meet the continuing needs of older children.

Preschool allowances might be expected to help promote intact families. For one thing, mothers would be encouraged to remarry. Children for whom there was some financial provision would be somewhat less likely to be regarded as financial liabilities by potential stepfathers. On the other hand, probably some married couples stay together only because their income is insuficient to support separate households. Some small number of such marriages might dissolve with increased income; whether such dissolutions would be regrettable is another question. But these are short-range effects. In the long run, decent income might be expected to lead to more nearly middle-class views of marriage and therefore greater stability.

The proposal does not have any direct bearing on

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