The King of Siam might call it a ?puzzlement.?

I?ve never understood why some think the government should step in to help single mothers with rent, child-care, and other needs so that they can set up separate households. In Cabarrus County, the local newspaper tells the story of 26-year-old Caysie Lord, who is on a waiting list for subsidized day care and unable to make the math work for her own place:

Determined not to quit school, Lord put Maddy in day care anyway, and paid the $520 a month.

?But each month I don?t make enough to even pay my bills,? Lord said.

?I couldn?t afford a house, utilities and child care.?

Since day care cost as much as her rent, Lord took her daughter and moved in with her mother.

So, it would be better for taxpayers to shell out more money so she doesn?t have to reside with her own mother? This is a case where limited-government principle meets family-values principle (Social Security and Medicare are other examples of government supplanting traditional, reciprocal familiar relationships across the generations). I?m not making light of Lord?s predicament. I?m questioning why strangers, not kin, are thought to bear the legal responsibility of helping her out.