Teen girls

There comes a time in the lives of most teen girls where they rebel against their moms and the problem is usually resolved when mom says as long as you live under my roof you will do as I say. As a part of President Johnsons Great Society many benefits for single moms were made a part of the law. The single moms were entitled to a free apartment, free health care (Medicare for mom and CHIP for the children), WIC (Women’s Infants and Children) providing food supplements, free or reduced food items, and food stamps. Now the next time a teen got into spat with mom she could resolve the whole thing by having a baby. This was particularly devastating in the black community. The number of single moms increased from 25% in the 1960’s to the current 75%. Experts were offering more and more education on contraception not realizing that many of these young women wanted to have a baby. The young men who used to be needed for financial support found themselves replaced by a government program. This left them out of the loop and resentful. They responded by disrespecting women. It became a popular sport to “Dis” your woman. Violence against women increased as the self-esteem of young men decreased. More and more of these young men turned to street gangs to try and increase their feelings of self-worth. This led to increased drop-out rates, drug use and drug sales and crimes of various kinds. The education gap between blacks and whites continued to widen. The number of young black men growing up in homes without a male role model increased and they were not taught to respect authority and this led to problems authority figures like teaches, coaches and law officers. As often happens with government programs, this whole scenario represents just one more example of the unintended consequences of good intentions. The cost of these programs in money (trillions) is not as damaging as the disruption in the lives of millions of young people. Will we as a society learn from this experiment?