Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Wisconsin Senator Blames LBJ for Illegitimate Births

This article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel takes Sen. Ron Johnson to  task for holding LBJ era social programs responsible for the huge increase in unwed motherhood from that time to this.

Writer Daniel Bice points out that the unrelated Texan Johnson has been dead for fifty years, just in case you've forgotten. He admits that while births to unmarried women went from about 5% in the infertile sixties and skyrocketed to over 40% by 2019, there were many causes for the dramatic increase in addition to government subsidies for children born out of wedlock (and their mothers).

 As every sentient being realizes, when the government pays for things, more of those things are produced, not only aircraft carriers and interstate highways, but also children.

Bice says that some authorities point out that other factors are involved as well.

   There has been a rise in cohabitation, more permissive sexual mores, a decline in shotgun weddings, easier divorce laws, a drop in manufacturing jobs for males without college degrees and greater financial independence for women. 

The rise in cohabitation and more permissive sexual mores are basically the same thing but cohabitation isn't permitted by child support regulations. "Shotgun weddings" are frowned upon by law enforcement and the judicial system, which also determines the child support amounts and schedules. Divorced women aren't the problem in this issue, generally having been married before or after giving birth. He doesn't demonstrate how the effect of job loss among ignorant males and financial independence for women figure into a steady increase in illegitimacy, which is a ridiculous term for the birth of a child in what is supposedly a civilized society. All children are "legitimate".

His argument doesn't approach the real situation. Women, even teen-age Jezebels, have agency. They are able to make decisions about their life and act on those decisions. Women decide with whom and when they are going to indulge in sex. In spite of the easy availability of birth control products they choose to either risk pregnancy or seek it. A  certain percentage of women observe the happenings around them and decide that life will be economically easier for them with children and a government stipend. Not only that, financial independence means they won't have to put up with lazy Floyd leaving his dirty socks laying around after stumbling home from the saloon.    

No comments: