Walter Williams: Welfare State Has Destroyed The Black Family
Jason S. Riley writes in the WSJ:
Even in the antebellum era, when slaves often weren't permitted to wed, most black children lived with a biological mother and father. During Reconstruction and up until the 1940s, 75% to 85% of black children lived in two-parent families. Today, more than 70% of black children are born to single women. "The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn't do, what Jim Crow couldn't do, what the harshest racism couldn't do," Mr. Williams says. "And that is to destroy the black family.""...The 70% illegitimacy rate is a devastating problem, but it doesn't have a damn thing to do with racism. The fact that in some areas black people are huddled in their homes at night, sometimes serving meals on the floor so they don't get hit by a stray bullet--that's not because the Klan is riding through the neighborhood."
There is also a matter of learning self-respect and drilling TAANSTAFL into your mind. If someone is giving you something for free -- it isn't free.
If you read the article he mentions the Davis-Bacon act. I learned about the Davis-Bacon act way back when -- just eliminating that would save billions per year.
Every single road construction project would be much cheaper. But at the same time -- economic incentives also makes a difference. A perfect example of that is the burned ramp in Oakland. It was done in 17 days not 50 as predicted.
Jim P. at January 22, 2011 8:52 AM
Walter Russell Mead has an interesting series going at The American Interest. He points out that yes, we have a growing black middle class -- but they are disproportionately employed in government, and so will be disproportionately impacted by the government employment cuts that are inevitably coming soon, just as the inner-city welfare black communities are. He says that blacks have come to associate ever-expanding federal government as being the guarantor of their civil rights, and so they will continue to support what he calls the "blue social model". The theory goes that blacks associate devolution of federal power with Jim Crow and segregation, and so it will take lots of time to build up trust before they will support, or even grudgingly accept, libertarian small-government initiatives.
Of course, the problem is that we're out of time. The point at which the blue social model cannot go further has arrived, and the change must start now. Blacks vote for blue-model politicians at about a 98% rate, and if anything, the last four election cycles show that that percentage is actually still going up. The memo that libertarian and small-government politicians have received is that attempting to campaign among the black community is a waste of campaign resources -- they aren't going to get any votes there no matter what, so why bother?
The unfortunate effect is that whatever steps could be taken to mitigate the effects of the upcoming government transformation on government-dependent blacks are not going to be taken, because no lines of communication exist to discuss those steps. The black community appears bound and determined to go all in with a pair of threes; they're going to get their clocks cleaned, and there does not appear to be any way to stop it. After that, things get ugly.
Cousin Dave at January 22, 2011 10:32 AM
The real problem I see with the Davis-Bacon act is that it appears to always be about 20% high on determining prevailing wage. That is just based on personal observation/experience.
The Former Banker at January 22, 2011 2:36 PM
Not sure about this. If welfare is the problem, then we would expect Asian families to show the same problems. They do not.
Obviously, people from different races and cultures respond differently to government incentives.
Sweden, with socialism, will always be a nicer place to live than Nigeria, with capitalism.
Why? Culture and race, that's why. The government is not the cure or cause of all problems.
BOTU at January 24, 2011 11:04 AM
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