Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Ari Fleischer lays out a key reason for “income inequality” in this country, but the data is inconvenient for those who don’t want to discuss the role individual decisions have on life. The fact is, getting married and not having children until you are married has a huge impact on whether or not you will be poor.
According to Census Bureau information analyzed by the Beverly LaHaye Institute, among families headed by two married parents in 2012, just 7.5% lived in poverty. By contrast, when families are headed by a single mother the poverty level jumps to 33.9%.
And the number of children raised in female-headed families is growing throughout America. A 2012 study by the Heritage Foundation found that 28.6% of children born to a white mother were out of wedlock. For Hispanics, the figure was 52.5% and for African-Americans 72.3%. In 1964, when the war on poverty began, almost everyone was born in a family with two married parents: only 7% were not.
Despite this, the Left — with President Obama leading the charge for fellow Leftists — argues we must raise taxes on the productive and redistribute the fruits of their labor to the poor. The implication, of course, is that the productive and/or wealthy are not doing their “fair share” to help those in need. That, of course, is nonsense. Once again, the data is inconvenient for their argument, so don’t expect Leftists to acknowledge this either:
The tax code is already extremely progressive, as a December study by the Congressional Budget Office makes clear, yet poverty remains a significant problem. According to CBO, the top 40% of wage earners, those who make more than $51,100 a year, paid 86.4% of all federal taxes in 2010, the most recent data available. The bottom 40% of earners paid just 4.2% of all taxes. The top 40% paid virtually all of the income tax collected, while the bottom 40% paid a negative 9.1% of all income taxes. Paying “negative” taxes is possible because of the earned-income tax credit and other public-assistance measures that give the bottom 40% refunds for taxes they didn’t pay.
Behavior matters. Family is the core of our society and the core of raising children in a secure, stable environment.
In the meantime, while we work to encourage people to make sound decisions for themselves and their children, we can’t ignore immediate needs of those who are struggling. That doesn’t mean government must add to the billions already allocated to the poor. What it means is that each of us — as individuals — must help others through our churches and nonprofit groups.