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SUMMARY OF MURRAY INCORPORATED INTO YOUR OWN ESSAY

The conservative social critic Charles Murray, writing in the October 29/ 1993, Wall Street Journal, has argued that America's skyrocketing illegitimacy rateis "the single most important social problem of our time" (28). Citing extensive sta­tistical evidence, Murray argues that the illegitimacy rate in America has reached 30 percent of all live births, thus exceeding the 25 percent black illegitimacy rate in the 1960s that sparked Daniel Patrick Moynihan's prophetic warnings about the breakdown of the black family. According to Murray, illegitimate births among lower-class whites have risen so dramatically that a new white underclass is beginning to emerge. Murray thus predicts the same kind of social breakdown among working-class whites (increase in crime, drug abuse, unemployment, un­manageable schools) that has characterized the black inner city. Murray's pro­posed solution, for which he gives both ethical and social justification, is to revitalize cultural constraints against illegitimacy. We should begin, he claims, by ending all economic support for single mothers, forcing them to seek assistance from family, boyfriends, or charities. He wants to send adolescents a "loud and unmistakable" (29) message. "From society's perspective, to have a baby that you cannot care for yourself is profoundly irresponsible, and the government will no longer subsidize it" (29). Murray claims that three good results will follow from the withdrawing of economic support: First, more adults will be involved in raising the child; second, many single mothers will decide against keeping infants and offer them for adoption; and third, angry families will reawaken the social stigma against illegitimacy. To make the solution workable, Murray argues that we must ease adoption laws and be prepared to spend lavishly on orphanages. Finally, Murray wants to increase the rewards of marriage through restructured tax codes and reexamination of divorce laws and other regulations that under­mine the social importance of marriage. Although this approach seems drastic, Murray argues that it merely returns our nation to the policies that prevailed up through John Kennedy's presidency. Unless we return to the values of virtue and temperance, claims Murray, the social catastrophe that has undermined black cul­ture will sweep through white culture also, thus destroying our nation.

 

 

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Date: 2015-02-03; view: 814


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