Politics

[Mark A Ouellette]

It says Denmark and Finland have 24 percent single parent households which lineup with Caucasians in America at around 25% and Sweden is at 34% which is quite a bit higher then the same racial group in America. France is also on the rise and was last reported at 23% in 2023. Seems like they match up with their demographic here in the states. Of the bigger countries only Germany and uk had lower rates at around 14-15%.

A strong cultural difference is how much fathers participate in raising their children. A single mother with her former husband actively engaged in child rearing and discipline will likely have a better chance of raising law abiding children.

Behavioral studies could develop statistical models of degrees of fatherhood in children’s lives resulting in those children’s success as adults. That’s not my field of expertise but it doesn’t take a PhD to see the results.

 

[Big_Easy]

I completely agree with you on the drugs point you make.

Anyone busted with the cheaper Crack Cocaine Vs. Powder faced drastically different sentences. Crack was cheaper primarily an inner city drug. Powder was seen the white collar, professionals drug of choice.

You see, we can agree on somethings.

 

[Tanks]

t is political gamesmanship to point to a single factor driving this persistent pattern. Most serious students of the issue point to proud economic changes broad economic changes, urban manufacturing declines, changes in welfare policy design, and shifting social norms in the black community (and more broadly) regarding marriage. And yes, drug related sentencing also played a role - as did an explosion of inner city crime that corresponded to the crack epidemic leading to those more draconian sentencing guidelines.

One thing people do not realize and it was pointed out to me at least in CA, anyway. In construction a lot of the dry wall, roofing companies etc. were either owned by blacks or employed a lot of black workers in the past. Now, the black owned companies are gone and black workers are replaced by migrant labor as they are less expensive. A lot of job opportunities have disappeared from the black community. Heck, my pool maintenance, yard maintenance, car wash service, house cleaning service are all Hispanic. They are not just making minimum wage either.

In retrospect, I have been on 4 project construction sites recently, I have not seen a single black person working.

 

[Big_Easy]

Proponents of the “crackdown on crack” believed that lawful inner-city residents would be better off if crack offenders were locked up for longer periods of time.

I suppose it depends upon how long. When it comes to serious violent crimes there are three pretty clear inflection points in the data, ages 20, 25, and 29 of the offenders. Throwing a 22 year old offender in prison for 20-30 years for drug offenses has significant diminishing marginal utility.

“Bill Clinton and his allies embarked on a draconian punishment campaign to outflank the Republicans,” while Hillary supported the effort and “stood resolutely at her husband’s side.” Alexander, the author of the influential book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, argued that Clinton’s past embrace of tough-on-crime policies is one of several reasons black voters shouldn’t support her. “

I think this is a bit disingenuous. Hillary Clinton in the 1990s wasn't an elected official in any capacity. Also, who should black voters vote for in 2016? Trump? The guy who demanded the Central Park 5 be sentenced to death, even after DNA evidence and a confession from someone else exonerated them?

Further, what is called the American Prison Industrial Complex likely doesn’t help those in prison,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison–industrial_complex

I'm glad we agree on some things. The question is what to do about it now. Do we revert back to past failed policies? Or do we continue to do what is working?

Certainly our liberal leaning members can debate the origins of sentencing disparities of crack vs. cocaine, or the prison industrial complex, or if the sky is blue on a sunny day, but as Elmer Keith said long ago, “Hell, I was there”.

Yes but Bill Clintons failures don't absolve the Republicans of their culpability in the matter either too.

 

[Big_Easy]

It has gone down in recent years but remains plateaued at roughly 47-50%. Hardly a triumph in the restoration of a stable family environments for half of this country's black children.

If it took society 50 years to screw it up, it'll take us at least 50 more to fix it.

Nothing is simple and nothing is the exclusive "fault" of either political party or administration. No matter where bias leads our finger pointing, fatherless households remain a significant persistent, now sixty years and counting, problem within the black community that has improved only marginally.

Fatherless households are worse in the Black community, but are still a problem for the country as a whole, regardless of race.

So long as conditions encourage the George Floyd's of the inner city to be the role models and heroes of black youth, little is likely to change.

I don't know any liberals, black or white that see George Floyd as a role model or a hero, especially to black youth. They do see his death as an agent of change (hopefully). But this incident is a whole separate discussion.

 

[Big_Easy]

It says Denmark and Finland have 24 percent single parent households which lineup with Caucasians in America at around 25% and Sweden is at 34% which is quite a bit higher then the same racial group in America. France is also on the rise and was last reported at 23% in 2023. Seems like they match up with their demographic here in the states. Of the bigger countries only Germany and uk had lower rates at around 14-15%.

I was looking at and comparing the whole of Europe. Primarily the EU. Its 14% in the EU, vs. 23% in the US. Since Europe spends almost 2x on social welfare programs, this heavily debunks the claim that welfare is solely to blame for the rise in single-parent homes, or even a primary factor.

1 in 8 EU households with children rely on one adult - News articles - Eurostat

EDN-20260601-1

ec.europa.eu

This article breaks it down by country. The wealthier ones have higher rates. But not as high as we do.

 

[Mark A Ouellette]

I suppose it depends upon how long. When it comes to serious violent crimes there are three pretty clear inflection points in the data, ages 20, 25, and 29 of the offenders. Throwing a 22 year old offender in prison for 20-30 years for drug offenses has significant diminishing marginal utility.

I think this is a bit disingenuous. Hillary Clinton in the 1990s wasn't an elected official in any capacity. Also, who should black voters vote for in 2016? Trump? The guy who demanded the Central Park 5 be sentenced to death, even after DNA evidence and a confession from someone else exonerated them?

I'm glad we agree on some things. The question is what to do about it now. Do we revert back to past failed policies? Or do we continue to do what is working?

Yes but Bill Clintons failures don't absolve the Republicans of their culpability in the matter either too.

And this is why I have had you on Ignore since your first day on AH. Have a nice life but try to get out of your mammas basement for 20 minutes of sunshine every day.