I. Marrying for Money
"Median income for a single mother is about $25,000, compared with about $81,000 for two parents. The inequality trickles down to the children: if kids have married mothers, they will grow up to be fourteen percentiles higher in income than those with single mothers."
If single mothers get married, what happens to them? "A nationally representative study found that two-thirds of these mothers will end up divorced. That's worse for their finances than having stayed single in the first place. And sociologist Kristi Williams found no psychological or physical advantages for most teens whose single mothers ended up getting married."
How have programs to pay single mothers to get married worked out? "Since 2001, the US government has spent about $800 million on the Healthy Marriage Initiative, even as the national marriage rate continued to decline. In 2002, it spent $11,000 per couple in the Building Strong Families Project, which proved to have no effect on whether couples got married or even stayed together. And in 2003, it spent $9,100 per couple in the unsuccessful Supporting Healthy Marriage program." [1]
How does the U.S. compare with the Scandinavian countries on poverty rates for children in single-mother families? In terms of Before Social Safety Net Benefits, the Percent in Poverty are as follows: the U.S. about 65; Sweden - about 52; Norway - about 57; Finland - about 50. In terms of After Social Safety Net Benefits, the Percent in Poverty are as follows: the U.S. - about 55; Sweden - about 13; Norway - about 11; Finland - about 8. [2]
If we want to improve the prospects for children of single parents, what are some policy solutions?
Income Support - Welfare reaches less than a third of poor families with children and the benefits are less than in 1996
Paid Leave - The United States is just one of three countries in the world that do not guarantee paid paternity leave: only twelve percent of :American workers in the private sector have access to it. The United States should also guarantee paid sick leave days, like all of the other rich countries.
Universal Childcare - Childcare for most families costs more than rent or food. In thirty-one states, it costs more than tuition to a public college. [3]
II. Flee-Economics
So-called tax inversion is the practice of U.S. companies moving their headquarters overseas, avoiding the Internal Revenue Service while keeping their executives stateside, scoring government contracts, and taking full advantage of public benefits for employees. More than 100 companies have renounced their citizenship since 1982, most in the past decade. Where have these companies gone? Thirty have gone to Bermuda; seventeen to the Cayman Islands; thirteen to the Cayman Islands; ten to the Netherlands; and nine to Canada. There are at least seven other countries that have welcomed two or more U.S. companies. Between 2008 and 2013, American firms held more that $2.1 trillion in profits overseas -- that's as much as $500 billion in unpaid taxes. [4]
In 2014, Burger King obtained the Canadian doughnut chain Tim Hortons and announced plans to move its headquarters to Canada. Burger King stands to avoid $400 million to $1.2 billion in U.S. taxes over the next four years. Its major shareholders could avoid as much as $820 million in capital gains taxes. [5]
Few big companies actually pay the 35 percent corporate tax rate. Profits are up 21 percent since 2007, while corporate America's total tax bill has dropped 5 percent. From 2001 to 2012, corporate profits after tax have increased from about $700 billion to about $1,800 billion. Corporate taxes collected in that same period have increased from about $300 billion to about $400 billion. [6]
Footnotes
[1] Mike Konczal and Bryce Covert, "Marrying for Money," The Nation, December 1/8, 2014.
[2] Demos.org
[3] "Marrying..."
[4] Erika Eichelberger and Dave Gilson, "Flee-Economics," Mother Jones, March/April 2015.
[5] Ibid.; [6] Ibid.
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