Letters

From the June 1998 issue

(Page 3 of 4)

Subsidizing the Family

In his article on the Parental Bill of Rights ("Family Planning," March), Walter Olson is as critical of the proposal as George Will and James Q. Wilson are enthusiastic about it. As one of the two authors (along with my son, Grandon) of the Parental Bill concept, I welcome the enthusiasm and take the criticism seriously--alas, more seriously than I believe this particular criticism warrants. Olson's arguments, such as they are, make sense only for a world that no longer exists, certainly not in late 20th-century America.

I could go on at length about dozens of details in Olson's article--for example, I wonder how he feels about the World War II GI Bill of Rights on which our program is ultimately modeled and to which many of his criticisms would equally apply. Let me, however, go directly to the main issues involving this long-since-departed world where his arguments might have some relevance. That world is one in which a) there is a strong interest in the future and especially the future that will be inherited by one's children and grandchildren; and b) governmental policies are either minimal or at least neutral with respect to the institution of the family. I argue that neither of these assumptions is accurate in today's America. The failure of these assumptions is exactly why the Parental Bill program and other similar programs are (unfortunately) necessary.

I have recently written a book on the decline of what was once a very strong interest in the future, Posterity: Progress, Ideology, and the Decline of the American Family. In this book, I try to explain why the balance between self and posterity has shifted so sharply in the direction of self over the past several decades. The notion that, in this very present-minded world of ours, the family can be counted on to give adequate attention to our children--to "regulate itself" as Olson puts it--is largely wishful thinking

Certainly it becomes wishful thinking when we add the second point--the expansion of governmental programs whose main effect, intended or unintended, is to undermine the traditional American family. There are hundreds of examples, one obvious one being the expenditure of billions of dollars in public subsidies for various out-of-home day care arrangements. Olson undoubtedly wishes that such programs did not exist. But they do exist, and every indication (for example, Clinton's recent State of the Union message) is that these subsidies will be expanded in the future.

It is very understandable that parents would want these subsidies increased. For despite Olson's open-mindedness about current day care arrangements, there is overwhelming evidence that many, if not most, of them are exceedingly bad for children, especially infants and toddlers. An extensive 1995 study of day care centers reports that "child care at most centers in the United States is poor to mediocre with almost half of the infants and toddlers in rooms at less than minimal quality" (italics in original). This report, mind you, came from authors who strongly support an increase in day care subsidies. Olson's view that, once parents recognize that day care is inadequate, they will want to raise their young children themselves, is the exact opposite of the truth. It is almost certain that they will then demand higher subsidies so that they can count on so-called "quality" care.

Social Security, Medicare, tax-pro-tected pensions, and similar programs also distort parental choice. The past several decades have seen a dramatic shift in the composition of our labor force: a massive withdrawal of older men and a massive infusion of young mothers. It used to be that the overwhelming majority of 65-year-old men remained in the labor force; now only a small fraction do. Similarly, it used to be that only a small fraction of mothers with children under 6 in intact families were in the labor force; now two-thirds are.

Thus, the main drift of the Parental Bill of Rights program would be to shift subsidies from retirement years to young parenting years. It is an extraordinary misapplication of public funds when we heavily subsidize older men so that they can retire earlier than ever when they are living much longer and when work in the service economy is much easier on the elderly than in the past.

I agree with Olson in being for a general reduction of government programs that impact the institution of the family. Most such programs tend to undermine the family, not strengthen it. However, I do not believe that governmental action is by any means the sole cause of American family decline. Rather, I would suggest that this governmental action is, to a great degree, a reflection of the same underlying cultural attitudes that are weakening the family on their own. Were these cultural attitudes to change, there would probably be no need for a Parental Bill of Rights or any other significant government intervention in this area.

But that world does not exist now. Until it does, it seems to me that we must try to support all efforts to increase the care and attention parents give to their children and to raise the flag of "family values" (that abused term!) whenever we can. This is exactly what the Parental Bill of Rights would attempt to do.

Richard T. Gill
Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Walter Olson replies: One extraordinary, and highly unconservative, premise underlies the mass of prolix condescension that here issues from Mr. Gill's pen. Human nature, he contends, has in our own times undergone a radical change, with the result that ordinary middle-class parents no longer care overmuch about the future that faces their children. (The world in which they once did care, his second paragraph announces, is "long since departed.") I find this premise unlikely in itself, inconsistent with both the behavior and the expressed sentiments of nearly all middle-class (or, for that matter, poor) parents I see around me, and at odds with survey data concerning what adults worry about and what motivates them to work overtime, move to suburbs distant from their work, give up leisure time, or forgo present consumption.

Nowhere in his long letter does Mr. Gill respond to my prediction that steeply subsidizing later college education for mothers who stay home with children would cause many to postpone college attendance strategically to take advantage of the subsidy; would unfairly penalize taxpayers who decline to arrange their lives in the prescribed patterns (including women who persist in the now-common pattern of postponing childbearing until they finish their education); and would actually encourage some illegitimacies (if subsidies were made available to out-of-wedlock mothers, as is apparently contemplated). I hope this doesn't mean that Mr. Gill has not devoted much thought to whether these results will occur, or that he does not much care.

As for the facile invocation of the GI Bill to justify any ill-conceived social program that one might come up with, I can only say that, yes, I do see a very real difference (as regards the sorts of public services that might engender a claim on the taxpayer fisc) between being conscripted and sent into the Battle of the Bulge on one hand and looking after one's own child on the other.

Law vs. Law

Comments

nfl jerseys|11.15.10 @ 9:37PM|#

xthgf