Posted by Rusty in Southington
Hartford is a perfect example of “unintended consequences for good intentions” and the “welfare state”. Since the sixties, the liberal government felt the need to give more money to those who didn’t have it, instead of working on policies to make the disadvantaged more self-sufficient. By giving people money for nothing, it became worthless and expected from then on.
The unintended consequence to that policy was to destroy the recipient’s family structure for a whole class of people. The government rewards the young girls to have more and more children out of wedlock. The government pays for the girls not to marry the fathers. Then the government pays the girls to feed and clothe the babies. Then, when the government finds out the girls are too young and irresponsible to feed and clothe their babies, the government takes over feeding and clothing the babies with whole new bureaucracies. Oh, and they never cut back on the original payments as in the original feeding and clothing the babies. Just maybe it would be more cost efficient to properly teach or some other type of intervention for the care of these babies.
Good intentions are doing more harm by building an ever-expanding welfare state. The unintended consequence of these policies is more fatherless families with more and more children having children. The natural need for structure in their lives for the human being is filled by the gang system. The boys and young men join gangs to fill the void of not having a father and learn the wrong way to treat women. The other unintended consequence is to bankrupt the city and state budgets by paying more welfare and also financing the criminal system from more cops on the beat, the court system, and including the expanding prison system.
If Hartford is going to be serious about solving its problems, they first must reform welfare from the core. Instead of paying the girls NOT to marry the fathers, the system must encourage a two-parent family. If the girls are unable to feed and care for their babies – take them away. There are thousands of families who want and are able to care for those babies on their own without the state footing the bill. It is ridiculous to keep layering the welfare bureaucracies and paying for the same service multiple times. The money in the city and state budgets are not there any longer.
Then, the government must revamp the tax system starting by lowering all taxes. That is the first step in bringing business back to Hartford/Connecticut. More jobs will fill the void of welfare payments and will give the recipients a feeling a thousand times better by receiving a paycheck rather than a welfare check. When people are working they have less time to get themselves into trouble and they will have a much higher self-worth image. It wouldn’t hurt to instill a negative image of having a child out of wedlock again. I’m sure it won’t stop all of the kids having sex but it will make the girl think about the consequences and maybe use protection.
This is not a complete answer but I believe it is a starting point.