◼ link - Michael Barone/Washington Examiner @michaelbarone
...Research has shown that work requirements for welfare recipients have produced not just greater income but more satisfaction.
Entry-level jobs for welfare recipients have proven not to be dead ends but the avenue to greater job skills and promotions.
The welfare reform work requirements may also be contributing -- this is my hypothesis -- to the remarkable decline in violent crime in America over the last 20 years....
Today's 15-to-25s were more likely to have mothers who, if they collected welfare, had to hold a job. Mothers with jobs are away from home during work hours.
But they are also likely to have more moral authority. They bring home the bacon and are entitled to demand good behavior in return.
And, especially if they move ahead at work, they set a better example for their children, male and female. They show that there is a connection between honest effort and legitimate reward. A mother who earns success shows her children they can, too.....
History shows that societies have experienced sharp increases and reductions in crime rates within a generation. Public policies and demographic trends account for much of the change. But much change surely comes form attitudes inculcated in the home.
Another corollary, if my hypothesis is right, is that the decline in jobs and work-force participation may produce bad effects that are not just economic. All the more reason to think hard about how to turn it around.
