Michael B. Katz

In debating the 1996 welfare reform law, many political leaders argued that guaranteed welfare payments under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program offered women an economic incentive to have children, remain unmarried, and shun employment. As a result, AFDC was replaced by a program emphasizing time limits and personal responsibility. Michael B. Katz asserts in the following viewpoint that the easy availability of welfare payments was not to blame for the rise in out-of-wedlock births and dependency on public assistance. According to the author, limited job prospects for inner-city men and inadequate education have influenced whether poor, unwed women will have children far more than the inducement of welfare benefits. Katz is the Stanley I. Sheerr Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

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