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Why do you assume poverty is a temporary position? Millions of working people are earning minimum wage.

So what do you suggest for childcare then? Because this article is about families who cannot afford it even with the mother working.

But it's a reality that doesn't get talked about much in this whole debate, the fact that mom may not be able to find work after dropping out of the workforce to stay at home with the kids for several years. Maybe the economy won't be in the shitter when mom thinks about job hunting, but even if she has a college…

Yes, I'm aware, which is why I said that I assume government assistance must be involved. I don't know about everywhere else in the country, but my city also offers day care vouchers to working parents who qualify for SNAP and WIC.

So it's totally cool for parents bringing in an income that can barely support one person to give birth to a child that they have no means to support? Planned Parenthood operates on a sliding scale; if you're poor, you can probably get birth control for free and they have big bowls of free condoms too. I don't think…

it's called officially called SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program) now, not food stamps, but everyone still calls it food stamps anyway. you access them with an EBT card (electronic benefits transfer) for both food stamps and cash benefits.

For two-parent households, it's usually deducted from the total household income, and it often comes up that the income Mom is bringing in doesn't cover it, so it makes more sense for her not to work at all. I think the question (which might be the actual question you're asking) is why we expect moms to stop working…

That's funny, that you think that people in extreme poverty have the option to just work hard and "put money away." Chances are, things are not going to get significantly better for people in situations like that, even if they try their very hardest. It sucks and it's unfair, but it's true. It isn't unreasonable to…

Too bad so many of our schools do abstinence-only education and that Planned Parenthood is under attack.

Pretty sure that most states offer "food stamps" and WIC programs to people who make this little money and have children. (Food stamps in quotes because I can't remember what they call the programs these days, even though I know they are essentially debit cards.)

The thing is... it's going to be really difficult for them to return to the workforce after dropping out for several years, particularly if they don't have a college education and dropped out of the workforce because they were doing low-skill labor that didn't even cover the cost of childcare. Those 5-8 years are…

How can you even afford to support a family if your entire household income is less than $24,000 per year? That's below the poverty line for just one person. When you stretch that across at least 3 people (mom, presumably dad since mom isn't working, and baby)... I just can't understand how that is possible. I'm…

It would be interesting to follow a group of moms in this situation individually and see if, once their youngest child went to kindergarten, if they didn't immediately get a job. I'm guessing these women are only spending about 5-8 years out of the workforce solely looking after kids and once they are of school age,…