1 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:07,380 Years ago, I interviewed Kweisi Mfume, then the president of the NAACP. 2 00:00:07,380 --> 00:00:12,680 “As between the presence of white racism and the absence of black fathers,” I asked him, 3 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:17,920 “Which poses the bigger threat to the black community?” Without missing a beat, he said, 4 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:20,560 “The absence of black fathers.” 5 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:26,040 It was President Barack Obama who said, "We all know the statistics. That children who 6 00:00:26,050 --> 00:00:31,390 grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; 7 00:00:31,390 --> 00:00:38,640 nine times more likely to drop out of school and 20 times more likely to end up in prison.” 8 00:00:38,649 --> 00:00:43,719 The Journal of Research on Adolescence confirms that even after controlling for varying levels 9 00:00:43,719 --> 00:00:49,719 of household income, kids in father-absent homes are more likely to end up in jail. 10 00:00:49,720 --> 00:00:55,900 And kids who never had a father in the house are the most likely to wind up behind bars. 11 00:00:55,900 --> 00:01:02,520 In 1960, 5 percent of America's children entered the world without a mother and father married 12 00:01:02,530 --> 00:01:10,270 to each other. By 1980 it was 18 percent, by 2000 it had risen to 33 percent, 13 00:01:10,270 --> 00:01:14,990 and fifteen years later, the number reached 41 percent. 14 00:01:14,990 --> 00:01:20,580 For blacks, even during slavery when marriage for slaves was illegal, black children were 15 00:01:20,590 --> 00:01:26,500 more likely than today to be raised by both their mother and father. Economist Walter 16 00:01:26,500 --> 00:01:33,350 Williams has written that, according to census data, from 1890 to 1940, a black child was 17 00:01:33,350 --> 00:01:37,750 more likely to grow up with married parents than a white child. 18 00:01:37,750 --> 00:01:46,880 For blacks, out-of-wedlock births have gone from 25 percent in 1965 to 73 percent in 2015. 19 00:01:46,890 --> 00:01:53,130 For whites, from less than 5 percent to over 25 percent. And for Hispanics, out-of-wedlock 20 00:01:53,130 --> 00:01:56,850 births have risen to 53 percent. 21 00:01:56,850 --> 00:01:58,710 What happened to fathers? 22 00:01:58,710 --> 00:02:04,770 The answer is found in a basic law of economics: If you subsidize undesirable behavior 23 00:02:04,780 --> 00:02:12,740 you will get more undesirable behavior. In 1949, the nation’s poverty rate was 34 percent. 24 00:02:12,740 --> 00:02:18,700 By 1965, it was cut in half, to 17 percent -- all before President Lyndon Johnson’s 25 00:02:18,700 --> 00:02:26,140 so-called War on Poverty. But after that war began in 1965, poverty began to flat line. 26 00:02:26,140 --> 00:02:33,020 From 1965 until now, the government has spent over $20 trillion to fight poverty. 27 00:02:33,020 --> 00:02:38,320 The poverty rate has remained unchanged, but the relationship between poor men and women 28 00:02:38,330 --> 00:02:44,390 has changed – dramatically. That’s because our generous welfare system allows women, 29 00:02:44,390 --> 00:02:50,100 in effect, to marry the government. And this makes it all too easy for men to abandon their 30 00:02:50,100 --> 00:02:55,960 traditional moral and financial responsibilities. Psychologists call such dependency 31 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:58,000 "learned helplessness." 32 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:02,800 How do we know that the welfare state creates disincentives that hurt the very people 33 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:06,200 we are trying to help? They tell us. 34 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:12,900 In 1985, the Los Angeles Times asked both the poor and the non-poor whether poor women 35 00:03:12,900 --> 00:03:19,640 "often" have children to get additional benefits. Most of the non-poor respondents said no. 36 00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:23,960 However, 64 percent of poor respondents said yes. 37 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:27,700 Now, who do you think is in a better position to know? 38 00:03:27,700 --> 00:03:33,920 Tupac Shakur, the late rapper, once said: "I know for a fact that had I had a father, 39 00:03:33,920 --> 00:03:40,140 I'd have some discipline. I'd have more confidence." He admitted he began running with gangs because 40 00:03:40,150 --> 00:03:47,460 he wanted the things a father gives to a child, especially to a boy: structure and protection. 41 00:03:47,460 --> 00:03:51,760 “Your mother cannot calm you down the way a man can,” Shakur said. 42 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:55,180 “You need a man to teach you how to be a man." 43 00:03:55,180 --> 00:04:00,739 In my book "Dear Father, Dear Son," I write about my rough, tough World War II Marine 44 00:04:00,739 --> 00:04:07,330 staff sergeant dad. Born in the Jim Crow South of Athens, Ga., he was 14 at the start of 45 00:04:07,330 --> 00:04:14,410 the Great Depression. Growing up, I watched my father work two full-time jobs as a janitor. 46 00:04:14,410 --> 00:04:19,459 He also cooked for a rich family on the weekends--and somehow managed to go to night school to get 47 00:04:19,459 --> 00:04:24,399 his GED. When I was 10, my father opened a small restaurant that he ran retired 48 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:27,360 until he in his mid-80s. 49 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:32,400 He was never angry or bitter--and insisted that today’s America was very different 50 00:04:32,410 --> 00:04:38,190 from the world of racial segregation and limited opportunity in which he grew up. 51 00:04:38,190 --> 00:04:42,990 "Hard work wins,” he told me and my brothers. “You get out of life what you put into it. 52 00:04:42,990 --> 00:04:48,840 You can’t control the outcome, but you are 100% in control of the effort. And before blaming 53 00:04:48,850 --> 00:04:54,400 other people, go to the nearest mirror and ask yourself, ‘what could I have done to 54 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:58,920 change the outcome?’” This advice shaped my life. 55 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:05,280 Fathers matter. Until we have a government policy that makes that its first priority, 56 00:05:05,280 --> 00:05:07,140 nothing will change. 57 00:05:07,140 --> 00:05:10,440 I’m Larry Elder for Prager University.