However, none of the studies he cites actually show that giving families extra AFDC income produces better outcomes for children. I challenge him to produce any study showing that welfare has a benign effect on children except in the limited case where a program alleviates significant malnutrition. Promiscuity, illegitimacy, violence, and drug use should have been at record levels. In reality, most social problems were limited in the earlier period despite the lower material living standard. Social problems have dramatically increased as material living standards have improved.
Liberals put the cart before the horse.
The time has come for commonsense reform. Responding to David Whitman's specific questions, I would say that conservatives such as myself still do fret about separating children from mothers and pushing them into daycare. However, in general, the negative effects of dependence outweigh those of daycare, and the effects of daycare itself seem to be more benign for children of poorly educated parents than for children of the middle class. Still, the long-run goal of reform must be to reduce illegitimacy and restore marriage, not simply to generate many more single working mothers. Thus the impact of mandatory community service is large even though the actual numbers performing community-service work are small.