POPULATION CONTROL
the poor have larger families?   Indifference and lack of adequate contraception are probably factors.   But the natural response of rational beings to our economic system of financial rewards and punishment is also an important factor.
Few subjects create more emotional response among a middle income white audience than the subject of uncontrolled reproduction among unmarried women whose already large litters of children are being supported by public welfare.   But I have no hard feelings against them for producing children, with the amount of payment being a function of the number produced.   In Kentucky a woman may get about $50 a month for one child, whereas with 10 she would get about $300.   Thus they seem to be cheaper by the dozen.
Surely society must want her to produce children. Why complain when she does?    The fault here lies not with the welfare mothers but with a society which developed and tolerates such a system.
Aid to Dependent Children payments vary widely among states and in no case are they sufficient to provide a very high standard of living for the family. However, to a person who has nothing they look attractive
and they encourage the production of children.   I have seen social workers quoted in disbelief of the possibility that a woman would intentionally have another child in order to collect additional ADC payments. However, I know from personal experience during my days in the snake pit bars of Minneapolis that such behavior was commonplace.   Perhaps it was influenced by the fact that at that time Minnesota had the highest ADC payments per child in the nation.
For the middle income couples, on the other hand, each child is an additional financial liability. Therefore, they rarely produce the large families so commonly found among welfare clients.   But because of their affluence and a tax system which subsidizes their production of children, the vast middle class has been reproducing at a rate sufficient to have caused the major part of our population problem.
For the poor people and those on welfare I suggest a positive approach to population control.   First, we should pay them not to have children, just as we pay farmers not to raise corn, not to raise hogs, and as we should pay the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers not to build dams and the Soil Conservation Service not to
denude and channelize our streams.   Surely if we contract to pay a woman $300 a month to produce 10 unwanted children, we should pay another woman at least this much not to have any.   Remember that we do not solve any problems by raising her children. Surplus populations of unwanted children absorb resources, create crime in the streets, and reproduce themselves at near the biologically maximum rate.
Next we should pay substantial federal bonuses for sterilization.   Vasectomy is a very simple operation which does not affect the sexual behavior or desires of a man.   Since it costs society about $18, 000 just to raise and educate one welfare child, let alone try to keep him out of trouble, we could well afford vast sums for this program even without touching the sacred war chest.
0ft
f CLOTHES 9
SALE      SALE SALE
Sterilization is not so easily performed on the female.   It can best be done at the time of childbirth when the oviducts are most accessible to the surgeon. Therefore a federal population control program should be established in the maternity wards of every hospital. It should involve a massive subsidy for sterilization or a smaller annual subsidy for successful use of contrceptives.   It has also been suggested that a certificate of sterilization be required for a woman to get a new baby accepted for ADC payments.
Let me make it clear that fertility control is absolutely necessary for the welfare of the poor as well as for the rest of society.   The idea of rising expectations for the disadvantaged minorities is a cruel joke foisted upon them by the Establishment. Whitey's system of payments according to the number of children produced assures that there can be no possible escape from poverty except through crime. Poverty programs within this system are a farce.
If we control reproduction then there is hope for the poor.   An uneducated man with a wife and two children can be trained to repair automobiles or electrical appliances and he can climb into the middle income class.   But if he has a half a dozen children the outlook is bleak; we might as well write him off as "cannot be saved" so as to concentrate our resources on better prospects.   And if he has 11 children we could educate him through the PhD, get him a job as an associate professor of Zoology at the University of Kentucky, and his family would still be below Lyndon Johnson's official poverty line.
As I have pointed out in a previous writing (New Republic , Jan. 1970) the population problem in the United States is the most serious in the world. In facing this problem we have a choice.   We can limit
the number of births by humane means: contraception, abortion, sterilization, social and economic rewards and penalties.   Or we can do nothing and allow the nation to sink ever deeper into chaos as the population comes into balance due to increased death rates subsidized by wars,  riots, murder, suicide, heroin overdose, and the battered baby syndrome, plus a birth rate depressed by drug addiction, prison confinement and mental derangement.
AN INVITATION TO - REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH
The Young Socialist Alliance is a nation-wide revolutionary youth organization which has a vision of the future.   We envision a society in the U.S. and around the world which supplants oppression and barbarism with opportunities for the fullest development of mankind's cultural, economic and intellectual capacities.   The YSA believes that a socialist revolution will be necessary to overthrow the capitalist society which enslaves us all.   To accomplish this historical task we look to the ideas of such men as Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky and to the traditions established by revolutionaries such as Sam Adams, Frederick Douglass, Eugene Debs, Malcolm X and Che Guevara.
To all serious-minded youth, whether they be students, workers or GIs, we extend an invitation to find out more.
Young Socialist Alliance P. O. Box 952 University Station Lexington, Ky. 40506
_ I want to join
the YSA _ I would like
more information.
Name
Address City_
State
Zip_
10
January, 1970