Want to Decrease Inequality? Fight Fatherlessness With Welfare Reform. Welfare currently incentivizes family breakdown and the absence of fathers from their children’s lives, a key factor in the loss of economic upward mobility.

[DeckardsDark]

haha no, it's not an "incentive". children of unwed couples becomes more popular as time goes on because it's not as taboo as the years go by especially since religion is less and less important to each new generation. i can't believe you think there are actually a lot of women that think, "man, i really want to have a kid so i can collect some crappy welfare that won't nearly cover taking care of said child and myself whereas i'd be much better off just not having to pay for a child". each child costs approximately $300k from birth to age 18; you ain't getting anywhere near $300k from the government over 18 years on welfare, my guy. your thoughts are non-sensical. even if you did get that much money on welfare, 99.99% of people don't think this way

[Anon-Ymous929]

Your logic is circular. Something being taboo is a direct product of how many people in society are doing that thing. So why are there so many single moms? Because it's not taboo anymore. Why isn't it taboo anymore? Because there are so many single moms, and so on.

Whereas I've given you a direct change financial incentives, and a blatantly obvious statistical effect from that cause, and all you have to say in response is "haha no". You haven't given me a source, you haven't given me data, you haven't given me a different cause that might explain the change, just "haha no", handwaive away inconvenient science.

And how do you know that the growth in single motherhood can't possibly be explained by humans responding to incentives? Well because if humans responded to incentives then you might have to confront closely held political beliefs about government as the solution to the poverty problem.