Living off the government and condemning your children to poverty is selfish.

I am appalled that Terry Herrington thinks it is selfish for a woman to get an education. Does he think it is equally selfish for a man to get an education?

Women are more then uteri and they should be free to reach their full potential. It should be up to the woman if that potential includes a university degree and a professional career. Certainly getting knocked up and dropping out of school at 15 should not be held up as a laudable goal. Women and children deserve better then that.

Personally I find living off welfare selfish. According to the Welfare Reform Academy “Never-married mothers not only go on welfare in greater numbers than divorced women, but they also stay on longer. While divorced women typically use welfare as a temporary measure until they get back on their feet, unmarried mothers become trapped in long-term welfare dependency. In a study of welfare mothers, Nicholas Zill, formerly of Child Trends, Inc., and his colleagues found that 43 percent of long- term AFDC recipients were 17 years old or younger at the time of their first birth, compared to 25 percent of short-term recipients. An out-of- wedlock birth to a young mother seems to be a direct path to long-term poverty and welfare dependency. ”

And what happens to the children of these unwed Mother’s. According to Professor James Q. Wilson of Malibu California, “among white children, those living with unwed mothers were much more likely to become delinquent, and this remained true even after the researcher held constant family income. Among all children, those with an unwed mother were twice as likely to spend time in jail, as were those with two parents even after the researchers held constant family income. In predominately African American communities, the rate of violent crime is more closely correlated with family structure than with race. To avoid poverty in this country, you need do only three things: finish high school, marry before having a child, and produce the first child after the age of twenty. William Galston, formerly an adviser to President Clinton, has shown that only 8 percent of the families who do this are poor while 79 percent who fail to do this are poor.”

Getting an education doesn’t make a woman selfish it makes her SMART. Living off the government and condemning your children to poverty is selfish.