*grins* The one in my head....
(I'll leave you to take that however you wish)
I work during the day until around six, and I pick up my daughter at daycare afterwards, so I'm usually not home until later in the evening. I just got through checking my mail, which is how I found out that I got the forum. Hoodeehoooo!!!
THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO VOTED "YES," BTW....
Ok, let's see...first topic of discussion: Let's start with something relatively low-key....How about President Bush's Marriage Plan?
He wants to allocate $1.5 billion (during a five-year period) to help couples develop skills that promote "healthy marriages." The money would go to train counselors to help couples, with an emphasis on those with low incomes. Thus far, it's passed both the House and the Senate Finance Committee, and now they're trying to get it through the Senate as well.
Wade Horn, the assistant secretary for the Administration of Children, Youth, and Families (which is part of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services) says that the marriage initiative is meant to help those who are either already married or have decided to get married, not to persuade single people to GET married.
Basically, the idea is that you can reduce poverty by increasing marriage; supposedly, if you get more single mothers married, you reduce poverty and welfare, which saves the state money.
However, being a single parent isn't only an EFFECT of poverty. It's also a RESULT of it. Poverty would seem to be best dealt with through a decent income rather than marriage, or JUST marriage. Therefore, why don't they simply get rid of the "marriage penalty," (a penalty on working couples who file a joint tax return)? Also, according to the AMA, more than 40 million are either underinsured, or not insured at all. What about the problems they face?
Another interesting finding concerns a study of women from poor families, which was published in the February issue of the journal, "Social Problems"...Sociology professor Daniel T. Lichter of Ohio State University found that while women did get some economic benefits from marriage, those who married and then divorced had higher poverty rates than those who never got married at all.
Therefore, while Bush's plan MAY help couples, there's no guarantee that couples will seek out the counseling, or stay together even after the counseling, and if they don't stay together, the problem is just as bad. I'm not really sure how much it would help. I'm waiting on more information, but so far, it seems like the cost would outweigh the benefits which could just as well be gained by making more affordable health insurance available and getting rid of the marriage penalty.
So, what do YOU think?
Sidhe