SHORING UP THE FAMILY
Our fourth objective, strengthening the family, must begin with the treatment of single parenthood in general and the never-married mother in particular. It is important not simply to concentrate on the financial cost of single parenthood. Even more worrying is the effect on all concerned, above all the child, but also the mother and (absent) father too. It is possible to give a good upbringing to one or more children alone, but the dice is loaded heavily against. A girl who has become pregnant and left the parental home — either deliberately in order to get a council flat or because of silliness which went wrong — is suddenly confronted with the demanding, draining task of looking after a baby. And, particularly if the baby is a young boy growing up without a father, the problems are likely if anything to get worse. Of course, some find the inner resources to cope; some are lucky enough to find the right professional or voluntary help. But human nature being what it is, even the instinctive love of a mother for her child is likely to be swamped by depression and difficulties. Nor, incidentally, is it just mother and child who suffer. It is the serious commitment of marriage, particularly marriage and children, which is the making of many young men. Perhaps for the first time in their lives they have to raise their sights and consider their responsibilities to others and the longer-term prospects which will allow those responsibilities to be fulfilled. Without such demands, they often find that the only way they can express their masculinity is through the life of the street, through crime and through getting other young women pregnant. This pattern of behaviour is most clear in the American ‘underclass’; but traces of it can be seen in other classes and other countries.
Although, as I have suggested, the moral and cultural climate is of overarching if unquantifiable importance, the benefit and local authority housing allocation systems themselves have created the conditions for increasing single parenthood.[101] The argument is sometimes advanced that, given all of the difficulties likely to ensue in subsequent years, no one would make the rational calculation to become pregnant simply in order to receive housing and benefits. But this is in fact an over-simplification of any one person’s rational calculation. There may, for example, be many prior or contributory reasons for taking the decision — misunderstandings with parents, paradoxically a desire for ‘independence’ and, of course, all of the instincts since the apple was eaten in Eden. The provision of cheap (even free) housing and of social benefits removes disincentives and penalties which might otherwise have deterred. The fact that this short-term calculation leads for the most part to long-term unhappiness does not mean that calculation is absent or irrelevant. It merely means that the calculator has a short time-horizon.
How best can we deal with this? We must first distinguish between the widow and the divorced wife with children on the one hand, and the never-married single parent on the other. Whatever benefits are available to single parents must be paid to the widow or ex-wife in whatever family circumstances she finds herself, as now. The never-married single parent would, however, receive the same benefits under certain conditions: very broadly, if she remains living with her parents or, alternatively, in some sort of supervised accommodation provided by a voluntary or charitable body with other single parents under firm but friendly guidance. In such an environment, young mothers could be helped to become effective parents, young children could be cared for under proper conditions for part of the day if the mother went out to work, and undesirable outside influences could be kept at bay. Together with quicker and better procedures for adoption, this approach would safeguard the interests of the child, discourage reckless single parenthood and still meet society’s obligations to women and their children who, for whatever reason, are in need and distress.
Of course, strengthening the traditional family involves more than altering the position of never-married mothers. The very large increase in the rate of divorce is also a clear threat to the family. Some divorced women have savings, a substantial marital home and a reasonable income and are consequently well able to provide financially for children. But large numbers receive little or no maintenance and have had to rely on the state. The new Child Support Agency’s attempt to enforce decent levels of provision for an abandoned family, although the Agency’s approach clearly has shortcomings (now being remedied), is a response to the scale of the problem.
In the circumstances of divorce, as in the case of never-married mothers, the children are disadvantaged. But the main disadvantage to such children is the trauma of family break-up itself and the emotional turmoil involved in subsequent conflicts of loyalty between two separated parents. I have always accepted that in some circumstances the best option for all concerned is to end a bad marriage, particularly one where there is serious violence. But all too often the comfortable notion of a ‘clean break’ for the sake of the children conceals a large amount of adult selfishness. Recent research confirms that divorce itself is bad for children, leading to lower educational achievement, and worse employment and emotional prospects; nor do these consequences just apply to the children of poor parents.[102]
It would be difficult to reverse the reforms of the 1960s, which in nearly all Western countries made divorce easier. But it is reasonable, knowing what we now do about the trend towards early marriage break-up and the effects on children, to reconsider the whole question. Divorce does not just concern two individuals; the stability of other people’s marriages is affected too. That should certainly count against the Law Commission’s proposals to remove considerations of ‘fault’ from divorce altogether. We ought also to consider whether a clear distinction should be made between divorce where there are no children or the children have grown up, and divorce where dependent children are involved. ‘Putting the children first’ and keeping the home together will sometimes require ‘putting off the divorce’.
Strengthening the family means more than fending off the most obvious threats to it. If we are serious about the family as the fundamental unit of society, that has implications for economic policy too. It should, for example, be reflected in the tax system. It used to be axiomatic that tax should take into account family commitments. That principle was displaced when tax allowances were abolished and universal Child Benefit, paid at a flat rate, was substituted. Child Benefit at least pays partial tribute to the principle of taking responsibility. But I believe that child tax allowances should be reintroduced as part of a fair and effective system of child support.
Equally, it is vital that, taken together, other tax changes do not squeeze the traditional family further. And unfortunately this is now occurring. Mortgage tax relief has been substantially reduced. A 3 per cent tax has been placed on insurance, which obviously bears heavily on home owners. The value of the married couple’s tax allowance has been cut by failing to correct it for inflation. To encourage the traditional family means more tax relief and not less.
Modern Western society has proved more successful than any of its predecessors. It has created political and legal institutions which have extended personal freedom, generated economic ideas and structures which promote prosperity, and given birth to a bewildering array of cultural achievements. Indeed, with only limited accommodation to local traditions and conditions it has ceased in any geographically meaningful sense to be ‘Western’ at all, having penetrated almost every country on every continent. But such large and imposing structures require good foundations: and these are always ultimately moral and social, not material. The task which confronts us now — to keep those foundations well shored up against the tremors and pressures which threaten — is as demanding as any we have ever tackled.
CHAPTER XVI
Promoting the Free-Enterprise Revolution
BEHIND ECONOMICS
Economics is too important just to be left to the economists. It is no reflection upon the economist’s expertise or integrity to suggest that his approach will reflect the non-economic values which make him the person
