>>>Not necessarily. I think that people who work hard should be able to earn enough money to house, feed, clothe and otherwise care for their families, put something away for the future or for a rainy day, and have a little something left for some fun.
>>>
>>>So, let's suppose we have a family of 4 and both parents work really hard. Neither parent has a high school diploma because they were really irresponsible in high school and she got pregnant with their first child. Neither parent had the drive or amition to try to get a GEDor otherwise further their education, so they are both working at fast food restaurants.
>>>
>>>Instead of stopping at the first child, they decide to have a second even though they know that they cannot afford the one they have.
>>>
>>>So, my question to you is this: how do you propose that they earn enough money to do all the things that you cite above?
>>
>>I guess my first reaction is to " because they were really irresponsible in high school and she got pregnant with their first child." High school kids are immature and lots of them do irresponsible things.
>>
>>You see this as a simple case of people making bad choices and paying consequences. I see it as society failing to provide the supports these kids needed to ensure that one moment of stupidity doesn't ruin their lives.
>>
>>Why should a girl getting pregnant result in both parents failing to graduate? Why is that possibly a good outcome for these people, their child, or society as a while? While I think having a child in high school isn't a good idea, I knew people who did* and still managed to get an education.
>>
>>All that said, if these two people are working full-time or more at fast food, they should be able to earn enough money to support their family. If two adults working full-time can't earn enough to support a family of four, something's really wrong with our pay system.
>>
>>Tamar
>>
>>* While I knew pregnant girls in high school, in the 8 years my kids were in high school, I never saw a pregnant student there. Since I find it impossible to believe that no girls in that school got pregnant, I tend to assume that those who did had abortions.
>
>Obviously there are differences between school districts. My daughter Emily told me that there around 60 girls who were pregnant when she was a senior. Total enrollment was around 1800.

It's been a couple of years since my daughter graduated, but at the time, there were quite a few pregnant students in 9th-12th grade.