After offering several anecdotes, no doubt meant to be representative, in which single mothers said they wanted a father in their child's life but the male didn't want to commit, why does the solution always come back to what the woman should have done better?

A bigger question: why does our society tolerate having one out of four children living in poverty, regardless of family composition?

So, you want the price of being successful in America to be, you have to pay for the children of the poor?

" bigger question: why does our society tolerate having one out of four children living in poverty, regardless of family composition?"

An even bigger question than that.....what would constitute INTOLERANCE of same? Let me guess.....something to do with more of my tax money going to pay for their HDTV's and the rims for their boyfriend's Lexus?

If the "family composition" is what is leading to the poverty, then we really do need to take it into consideration.

Linden, some men are just plain not marriage material, and won't ever become marriage material unless they loose the supply of easy sex.

Having sex with a guy who isn't ready to commit is like eating raw hamburger. Might taste good, but why not make sure it's cooked first and avoid the tummy ache later?

And when someone gets sick after eating raw hamburger, nobody asks why the hamburger didn't cook itself.

And frankly, it's just as easy to tell a guy isn't ready for commitment as it is to tell a hamburger is still raw.

I dunno, maybe these women who can't get a man to commit need cooking lessons.

'..why does our society tolerate having one out of four children living in poverty, regardless of family composition?'

i chalk it up as diversity. there will always be losers and losers will always be poor and wretched.

if everyone was the same, there wouldn't be diversity.

do you hate diversity or something?

you could take all the money in the world and divide it equally, and 10 years later, the same stupid dumbasses will be poor again.

no one is holdiing anyone back from making money, it's that the poor are usually stupid and keep doing the same things over and over that makes them poor.

that's the way it is and i embrace that diversity.

Yes, I do. It costs little and makes society much, much better.

I agree. It takes 2.

Now for your poverty question: I have issues with children going hungry, or not getting medical care, and I think we need to address those, but "poverty" by itself doesn't tell us anything about the real issues.

When I was younger than six, we probably lived below the poverty line (my father was a medical student and doing his internship at that time, my mother stayed at home). We were never hungry but we lived with absolutely no luxuries (no television even), in either student housing or low-income housing. The funny thing is-- although I wouldn't want to live my life in that environment, I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. I can remember living in the only integrated neighborhood in Saginaw Michigan in 1980, for example.

Poverty is not so much of a problem because we are not made great by our possessions. Food insecurity is a problem. Lack of medical care, or the fact that one has to resort to the bankrupcy court as a medical insurance system is a problem. We need to address these needs. As we need to make sure that everyone who wants an education has a path open to get one at least as far as a BA or BS.

If you can't afford children - DON'T HAVE THEM! It's selfish and unfair to the children and the taxpayers who have to help support them.

Having children should be a priviledge not a right. We honor our priviledges and take our rights for granted.

That's the crux of it all.

People feel its their god given right to have a child if they want, regardless of their own capabilities to take care of it.

Great song about that by Korn...

Eventually all the responcible people are going to get sick enough of taking care of the slacking punks and shouldering them along that they'll just find a way to sterilize them (reversibly of course). I'm dead serious. As the world gets more crowded there will eventually come a point where there is no other option but to consider having children as a privalige that comes with a heavy responcibility. Those that are incapable of disciplining themselves will be brought into line one way or another.

A lot of people who can't figure out that inbreeding and having kids you can't support is a stupid idea tend to also be people who have a ton of kids... /sigh

cruel ironies...but hey, we'll take care of them so they can have more kids...now that's just brilliant!