Destroying the Family In Order to Save It

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Before the invention of the social safety net, before the invention of democracy, before money, religion, or even language graced our world, there was the family. A fundamental economic institution that predates the economy, taking care of one's own is wired into our genes.

We unwind it at our peril.

Heavy handed approaches to wholesale replacement of the family with politically contrived creations are not the ones to worry about. How long did the New Soviet Man last? How many of us grew up on a kibbutz? Rather, it's the steady unlacing of family ties by the helping hand of the Nanny State that represents the gravest threat. All done with the best of intentions.

We saw it first when the wrecking ball of welfare came through in the 1960s and 70s, tearing apart inner city black families in an effort to rescue them from poverty. Absent fathers and out of wedlock children unleashed a generation of feral youth, many of whom became wards of the criminal justice system.

Absent a strong parental hand, educational achievement collapsed. Economic failure inevitably followed, calling for an expansion of the welfare system that was its proximate cause. A culture of victimization and entitlement took root, symbolized by charismatic agitprop activists like the Reverend Al Sharpton.

The unfamilied, uneducated, and promiscuously fecund begat more of the same until they constituted a large enough voting block to form a reliable constituency for many urban politicians. The impact on our cities was profound. Bill Clinton's welfare reform recognized the problem for what it was and valiantly tried to fix it, but by then the damage was done. Attempts to put Humpty Dumpty together again have since been met with derision, even when led by prominent black leaders like Bill Cosby. Once a culture kills off the family it's hard to bring it back.

Medicaid has been doing its part to weaken the bonds of kinship by fostering a growing movement to artificially impoverish the elderly. Established as a safety net for the indigent and now providing support for 64 million Americans at a state and federal cost approaching half a trillion dollars per year, Medicaid has strict rules governing both the income and asset levels of prospective recipients. Like any welfare program, if you either earn or own too much you don't qualify.

This often leaves family members in a quandary. Do we help take care of grandma, allowing her to stretch her life savings, or do we strip her of her assets and shift the burden onto the public? An entire legal specialty known as Medicaid Planning has emerged to help adult children evade the increasingly complex roadblocks that have been erected to forestall artificial impoverishment. And yet the practice grows just as the concept of family responsibility disappears.

Do husbands and wives who saved for their December years use the money to take care of themselves as long as they can or do they pursue the legal remedy of spousal refusal, an increasingly popular tactic that leaves taxpayers holding the bag for one spouse while the other makes off with the assets?

The unintended consequences of these failing policies generate exactly the kind of moral hazard that breeds overuse of any entitlement. Why save for your old age if the burden of elder care can be passed along to society? Why buy long term care insurance when you can get equivalent benefits from the government for free? Why save to send your kids to college if these savings count against them when calculating financial aid? Why delay having children until you can afford them if you can make raising and educating them someone else's problem? Why bother getting married if all it does is add to your tax burden while making it harder to duck responsibility for your kids? While you're at it, why have kids at all? They're just an expense, and it's not like they are going to feel responsible for taking care of you in your old age.

And that is what the end of the road looks like, a road Europe is rapidly barreling down. Traditional marriage is declining in western social democracies as rapidly as the birth rate. Ultimately, this leaves no one to pass the entitlement bills on to when they come due. And they are about to come due with a vengeance.

Bill Frezza is a fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and a Boston-based venture capitalist. You can find all of his columns, TV, and radio interviews here.  If you would like to have his weekly columns delivered to you by e-mail, click here or follow him on Twitter @BillFrezza.

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