Work and Marriage: The Way to End Poverty and Welfare

Providing such assistance has been the dominant strategy for combating poverty in the United States for many years. Yet it has been remarkably unsuccessful. There is no state where a welfare check will raise a four-person family above the g o v e rn m e n t ’s official poverty line ($18,104 in 2001). Add in the fact that the official poverty lineis a pretty stingy standard that has not kept pace with rising standards of living over the past half century and these data become even more disheartening. In this brief, we contrast making cash and related forms of public assistance more genero u s with strategies that encourage work and marriage. The data suggest that the latter are more effective ways of reducing poverty and demonstrate the wisdom of the increasing attention that has been given to encouraging work and marriage in recent policy discussions.