fcs 2400 Families and social policy

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fcs 2400Families and social policy
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Public frustration about government spending

• What kind of families do we want to promote?
• Family wage
• Welfare state

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History of state intervention into family
affairs--Coontz

• Self-reliance and the American west.
• Little house on prairie or considerable help from
  uncle Sam
• Louisiana purchase in 1803 Confiscation of
  Mexico and native American lands 200 million
  for canals from coast to Ohio and Mississippi
• Self-reliance and the suburban family.
• GI bill and college, homesavailable to over 40
  of men in 1940s Privatization of wartime
  industry FHAVA only asked for a 1 down most
  often 1947, GOV built 37,000 miles of road
  connecting suburbs to cities

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What is Family Policy

• A perspective to study policies that affect
  families?
• No more than general policy?
• At what level should government be involved in
  family life?
• Marriage?
• Taxes?
• Reproductive rights?

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Antipoverty programs Have they worked?
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Have antipoverty programs worked?

• NO! Charles Murray
• We tried to provide more for the poor and
  produced more poor instead. We tried to remove
  the barriers to escape poverty, and inadvertently
  built a trap.
• When reforms finally do occur, they will happen
  not because stingy people have won, but because
  generous people have stopped kidding themselves
• It is now accepted that the social programs of
  the 1960s broadly failed that gov is clumsy and
  ineffectual when it intervenes in local life and
  the principles of personal responsibility,
  penalties for bad behavior, and rewards for good
  behavior have to be introduced into social
  policy.

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Unintended Consequences of Social Policy

• If the gov wants to change a person's behavior,
  paying that person to change will not work.
• For example, smoking
• Gov promised to pay people who had smoked for
  five years 10,000 to quit. What are the
  implications of the program?

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Have antipoverty programs worked?

• Maybe?

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Rebecca Blank It Takes A Nation two types of
mistakes

• Public misperceives the cost
• Critics do not look at the full range of
  effectsbenefits and costs- that programs
  generate
• They use the wrong yardstick to measure success

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So how should we regard recent efforts at
fighting poverty?What are we talking about
anyway

• Cash assistance programs AFDC, SSI (elderly or
  disabled below certain income cutoffs)
• In Kind Programs Food Stamps. Medicaid.
  Housing assistance
• Employment subsidy programs EITC, minimum wage
• Other non means tested -SS, unemployment,
  veterans benefits, workman's compensation,
  Medicare, state run programs such as foster care.

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Examplesemployment subsidy programs

• EITC Now Lifts More Children out of Poverty than
  Any Other Program. 2.4 mil children out of
  poverty in 199637.3 of all children moved out
  of poverty by government programs that year.

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EITCA tax credit for low-income working families
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The EITC is a refundable tax credit
Jane raises one child on her own, earned
7.50/hour in 2003
Janes tax calculation
15,600 adjusted gross income
- 7,000 standard deduction (head of household)
- 6,100 exemptions (herself and child)
2,400 taxable income
EITC 2,248
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Government Benefits Lift Families Out of Poverty
Source Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
U.S. Census Bureau
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fcs 2400Families and social policy
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Family Policy Debates

• Family Policy not even an issue until mid 1970s
• ConservativesThe government should not intrude
  into family life
• LiberalsThe government should help families to
  solve their problems

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The Conservative Viewpoint

• The welfare state created to support the
  breadwinner-homemaker family
• Women marry men that provide
• Most compensation designed with men in mind
• Income tax also supported this
• Family wage system was the main focus
• Conservatives might support something that did
  not advocate changing family wage system

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The Liberal Viewpoint

• Government should assist and help all families
  equally
• Tend to help married couples in which wives
  employed outside home and single parents
• All family forms acceptable
• No family form should unjustifiably restrict
  womens autonomy

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Overview of the Aid to Families with Dependent
Children Program (AFDC)

• States had discretion primarily over setting
  income eligibility limits and benefit levels
• Activity requirements were weak and generally
  focused on education and training rather than
  work
• States were not allowed to time limit
  beneficiaries
• Beginning in early 1990s, states increasingly
  used waivers to try new approaches to reducing
  welfare dependence

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Antipoverty programs how we have tried and
succeed to change
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Why Did Welfare Reform Legislation Pass in 1996
After Many Previous Failures

• Dramatic caseload increases after 1988 fostered
  perception that program was out of control
• Public opinion
• shifted to overwhelming support for work
  requirements for parents, while still divided on
  hard time limits and family caps
• AFDC was unpopular/seen as anti-work and
  anti-family. The public was willing to accept
  almost any alternative to the status quo

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Why Did Welfare Reform Legislation Pass in 1996
After Many Previous Failures Cont.

• POLITICS
• Bill Clinton promised to end welfare as we know
  it
• Republicans in Congress committed to welfare
  reform by Contract with America
• Moderate Democrats in Congress followed President
  Clinton to the right in order to avoid being seen
  as more liberal than President Clinton on welfare
  issues

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The Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA)
1. Provide assistance to needy families
with children 2. End welfare dependency by
promoting job preparation, work and
marriage 3. Prevent non-marital
pregnancies 4. Encourage formation and
maintenance of two-parent families
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Five Components of TANF

• 1. End Cash Entitlement
• 2. Block Grant Funding
• 3. Work Requirements
• Sanctions
• 5. 5-Year Time Limit

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Key differences between AFDC and TANF

• Fed financial commit reduced block granted to
  the states.
• assistance is no longer an entitlement to the
  poor.
• 60-month federal lifetime time limit. (five
  years)
• Economy is a major factor in welfare assistance
• charitable orgs will fill gap in social service
  provision?
• Work Requirements
• Sanctions
• Teen mothers/non marital births
• Child support enforcement

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Effects of welfare reform
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Cash Welfare Caseload, 1960-2002
5.05
2.065
Source Congressional Research Service and
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Note 2002 data based on 6 month average
January-June, 2002.

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What should be the goal?

• Changing Welfare Caseload short term versus long
  term
• More people on Welfare Are Workingeven those
  with barriers
• States Are Doing More to Support Work
• Deep Hardship okay?
• Change in Family Structure ?

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FCS 2400Social Policy and Marriage Encouraging
some and preventing others?
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Announcement/agenda

• Today
• Social policy and marriageencourage some and
  preventing others?
• Tuesday
• What have been the major changes in the family
• Impact on public family
• Impact on private family
• Summing up
• Thursday
• EXAM 3

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Institution of Marriage

• Marriage is a great institution, but I'm not
  ready for an institution yet.
• Is everyone meant for marriage?
• Is marriage a right or a privilege?

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Current Debates about marriage promotion

• Marriage-promotion program
• Marriage movement vs. diversity defenders
• Video clip

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Marriage Promotion

• Language in PRWORA to promote two parent families
• Early 2000s work began on a bill to extend PRWORA
  by supporting marriage of low income families
• Would include
• Relationship skills
• Conflict management
• Education modules for high schoolers on marriage

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Marriage Promotion

• Debate is not just about
• Is it better for children to be raised with two
  married parents?
• Can single parents do as good a job if they
  receive more support?
• It also is about political and moral issues
• Autonomy of women
• Authority of men
• Imposition of particular moral view of family on
  those who choose other lifestyles

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Marriage Promotion

• Womens lives have changed
• Greater earning power
• Social norms
• sexual activity without unwanted pregnancy
• Greater acceptance of raising a child outside of
  marriage
• Economic fortunes of men have declined
• parenthood childrearing no longer require
  marriage

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Marriage Promotion

• Does our government make the symbolic state that
  marriage is to be preferred over other family
  forms? (marriage movement)
• Or, does it make the symbolic statement that
  individuals should be free to choose the form
  they wish? (diversity movement)

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Special focus on Utah

• www.utahmarriage.org
• Roz mcgeemarriage preparation billkilled
• 1994Leavitt and Governor initiatives on families
  today (GIFT)marriage enrichment
• Gov commission on marriage1998
• 600k in tanf funds spent on
• Marriage week feb7-14/Gold medal marriages
  (couple married longest and exemplary marriages_
• Booklet building a successful marriage
• Website/Video
• Training for family life educators
• Statewide survey on marriage behavior
• Elective high school course
• Extension evaluation of news you can use

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Movie clip
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Same-Sex Marriage

• Issue of whether marriage should be restricted to
  heterosexuals has emerged
• Several decisions in 2003 have brought issue
  public
• U.S Supreme Courtno outlawing of gay and lesbian
  sexual acts
• Canadian provincial courts in British Columbia,
  Ontario, and Quebec ruled that government could
  not ban same-sex marriages

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Same Sex Marriage

• Video clips
• Several years of court battles may decide outcome
• Surveys show a majority of American adults oppose
  same-sex marriage (59)
• Most people view marriage as an arrangement for
  having children
• This view is fading
• Many same-sex couple have adopted children or had
  them donor inseminated
• There may be no compelling reason to uphold laws
  restricting marriage to same-sex couples

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Family Policy in the Early 2000s

• How much assistance should government provide to
• Promote marriage
• Restricting marriage to heterosexuals