The Working-Class Welfare Trap: How Policy Penalizes Marriage | NONPERELE

Our tax and welfare policies often penalize marriage, trapping too many people in poverty.

…Not surprisingly, these penalties seem to play a role in fueling working-class Americans’ retreat from marriage that we have seen play out over the past three decades. In recent years, for instance, a majority of children born to working-class parents have been born outside of marriage, whereas the vast majority of upper–middle-class parents continue to have children in marriage…