KUMSN TO Media
The increase in the number of unwed mothers is not related to the increase in unwed mothers’ social welfare expenditures
After reading “‘Morning Sunlight’ Free Social Welfare and Tax Bomb” on January 25th, 2011
Kwon Hee-jung
Executive Director
Korean Unwed Mothers Support Network
In his editorial piece, “‘Morning Sunlight’ Free Social Welfare and the Tax Bomb” which ran on January 24th, Jeong Nam-gi used the case of unwed mothers’ social welfare as an example of the complicated nature of the social welfare system. Jeong asserted that the support for unwed mothers actually encourages the increase in the number of unwed mothers and therefore the existence of such a social welfare system itself is dangerous.
First of all, we cannot conclude that there is a causal relationship between the development of the social welfare system and the increase in the number of recipients of such welfare. Just as welfare support for the disabled doesn’t cause an increase in the number of disabled recipients and the increase in injury compensation for traffic accident victims doesn’t mean that the number of people injured in accidents will increase, the increase in the support for unwed mothers does not cause an increase in the number of unwed mothers.
The circumstances under which women become unwed mothers are just as complicated as the welfare system itself. It isn’t something that we can judge simply from a moral standpoint. In the past, children born from extramarital relationships were either aborted or given away for adoption.
But today, the increase in the number of unwed mothers means that more children are being raised by their biological mothers. This means that our society is growing and becoming a more mature society. Therefore, the accompanying increase in social welfare support is natural because the right of a mother to raise her child must be protected whether or not a woman is married or not.
Korean version for this article: http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/opinion/because/461729.html
