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A "NEW NEW DEAL?" ADDRESS THE PROBLEMS IN THE OLD ONE FIRST.
Karen Kornbluh, principal author of the 2008 Democratic Party platform and a work-family economics expert, spoke today at the New America Foundation in Washington about how to make sure our response to the economic crisis is responsive to working families -- particularly single mothers and their children. A third of all American children today are raised by a single parent and 60 percent of all children in poverty are being raised by a single mother.
Kornbluh's main point was that any "New New Deal" must address a central problem with our existing New Deal social programs: They are biased toward dual parent, single-earner families with children. Under our current system, a stay-at-home wife and mother who never worked a day in her life will get a larger share of Social Security than a working single mom. And as Kornbluh smartly put it, Social Security benefits "the Cleavers more than Roseanne and Dan." In other words, even among married couples, our system rewards single-earner marriages more than dual-earner ones, which are by far more common.
--Dana Goldstein
COMMENTS (3)
so I was looking for a link to something...
Posted by: Carol | December 5, 2008 2:36 PM
Under our current system, a stay-at-home wife and mother who never worked a day in her life will get a larger share of Social Security than a working single mom. And as Kornbluh smartly put it, Social Security benefits "the Cleavers more than Roseanne and Dan." In other words, even among married couples, our system rewards single-earner marriages more than dual-earner ones, which are by far more common.
Doesn't this make sense, possibly? Raising children is important work that isn't rewarded by the market. It's not necessarily a bad idea for the government to make it easier for people to leave the workforce in order to spend more time with their kids.
Posted by: adsfdafds | December 5, 2008 10:16 PM
"Under our current system, a stay-at-home wife and mother who never worked a day in her life will get a larger share of Social Security than a working single mom."
Don't get me started. Caring for young children IS work, hard work. People who do this work should get Social Security credit for it, whether they are nannies or daycare workers doing it for pay or mothers caring for their own children. Just my not-so-humble opinion, based on my many years' experience of employment and my eight years of at-home mothering.
What is strange about the current system is that you can receive Social Security based solely on your spouse's work history. You can do no work at all, you can spend all your days doing your nails or going to the gym, but if you are married for 10 years, you can get Social Security based on your spouse's work history. That strikes me as wrong, as a remnant of a system developed 70 years ago and in need of some updating.
For more, read "Taxing Women" by Edward McCaffery.
Posted by: Margaret in NJ | December 9, 2008 4:09 PM