Women in the United States who seem to stockpile children and then any kind of state benefit on top of that are the bane of taxpaying society. For 18 years or more they are accompanied by the evidence of their questionable decisions, often projecting counterproductive lifestyle choices onto their brood in what seems like an endless cycle of poverty and dependence.
Statistically these women are not making educated choices, instead relying solely on their understanding of information handed down to them from previous generations and the few public resources put squarely in their paths. (It is puzzling when the placement of free/reduced services is met with neighborhood, city and/or zoning angst such that the service is then placed with some distance from those in need, and because those who need can’t get to it, the service is deemed “unnecessary” by those who don’t need.)
While it is essential for society to hold these women accountable for the decisions they’ve made, it is worth nothing how often they are treated as if their children were the product of asexual reproduction. Even when it is acknowledged that a man was involved, his anonymity or disappearance is often accepted without question. It seems it is easier for society to assume he was/is a substandard genetic contributor than to hold him equally accountable for a decision that left yet another taxpayer pulling out her hair.
Is he substandard and deserving of our disregard? Unless he’s in jail right this second, no. Even those men who profit considerably from criminal endeavor and use this resource to provide for their illegitimate child(ren) fly under the radar that is the child support enforcement system and are not a burden to the taxpayer. I’m not saying what they’re doing is right. I’m saying their children are not on the taxpayer’s porch lapping up government-subsidized milk.
Assuming the criminal-dad must be a drug dealer is to wrongly dismiss those men who have used their trust funds, college educations, and boys’ club connections to screw others out of millions of dollars that is then used to fuel their offspring. Sure, we say we want parents to support their kids legally, but when push comes to shove, we pretend we don’t see the criminal who supports his kids when he’s not using any part of our income.
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