[NorthMountain]

And single parent families are becoming the norm, especially among blacks and Hispanics.

Our 'welfare' policies encourage and subsidize this.

[kabar]

The breakdown of the family is the underlying cause of much of this. Welfare policies may have an impact, but they are less a cause than a reaction to the declining building block of human civilization, the nuclear family.

Children represent 24 percent of the population, but they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty. Among all children under 18 years of age, 45 percent live in low-income families and approximately one in every five (22 percent) live in poor families.