Chapter 1

1. Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein maintain that the majority of welfare recipients they interviewed were planning to leave welfare but could not afford to take the dead-end, minimum wage jobs available to them. James L. Payne argues that welfare recipients have no incentive to give up their carefree welfare “careers,” since they would have to find jobs paying more than $9.18 an hour to equal their earnings from welfare. Which author makes the more convincing argument for the reasons mothers remain on welfare? Why?
2. In their viewpoint, Michael Tanner and David B. Kopel cite several studies in support of their contention that easy access to welfare has increased unwed child-bearing and hastened the decline of the nuclear family. Michael B. Katz contends that the research linking welfare and out-of-wedlock births is flawed. Which author’s use of evidence do you find...