Making Ends Meet: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work: How Single Mothers Survive Welfare and Low-Wage Work

Bill Clinton ran for President campaigning to end "welfare as we know it" and Republicans cheered him on, arguing that welfare mothers (since America's only real welfare program -- Aid to Families with Dependent Children or AFDC -- goes to single mothers raising children) were simply being lazy and had to be forced to work. The TV pundits and the politicians argued about this perhaps, but nobody challenged the fundamental premises. Edin and Lein decided to do something different. Instead of squabbling about politics, they went out into the field and actually interviewed mothers on welfare. Their study was as rigorous as can be imagined -- they visited four cities, talked to dozens of mothers, and went over the books with them until all the numbers balanced out, finding exactly where they got their money and what they spent it on. What they found was shocking. Far from being lazy, mothers on welfare in fact all worked. In addition to putting in time raising their children (or getting family members to do it, since expensive daycare was out of the question) and waiting in line to pick up welfare checks, they worked serious full-time jobs under-the-table. There simply was no other way to make ends meet. In their entire study, Edin and Lein only found one mother who didn't work any other jobs -- and her son was taken away by social services for neglect (she couldn't afford to buy him enough food to eat). After looking at this evidence, it's hard to think of the politicians who cut AFDC in an attempt to move welfare mothers into the workforce they already clung to for survival as anything other than heartless monsters. And their number is well-represented in the introduction by Harvard professor Christopher Jencks, who diddles away the facts in an attempt to avoid seeming partisan, and has cautiously endorsed welfare reform in other forums. Anyone who wants to be taken seriously on the topic of welfare must read this book and understand the realities of the subject they're discussing.

Excellent statistical and investigative work that predates, but informs, much of the information we will get about the efficacy of welfare reform. Supports of both Charles Murray and Christopher Jencks will find materials in here that support and challenge their views. There are a few methodological problems with this book, however. Because the authors rely on word-of-mouth for their data sample, they over-sample those poor mothers who have social ties, and this probably skews their sample away from society's most *truly* destitude. Nonetheless, this remains an essential read given the extreme weakness of other data on the subject.

This book is a year late to influence the Congressional welfare reform debate. It is on time for the state level debate and policy development that must follow federal reform. This book acts as a smart bomb to mythic misconceptions, nostalgia and ideology surrounding welfare reform. Edin's research and writing were formerly available through the Wisconsin based Institute for Research on Poverty. Her work proved a significant resource in my advocacy for effective and compassionate welfare reform in Tennessee. You will encounter the real world of American poverty in this book. The President and Congress should read it with regret for their actions and Governors should read it for courage as they bear the weight of devolved welfare responsibility. Advocates and policy wonks should read it as essential.