Tax Policies Will Really Do This?

David Brooks’ column today offers advice for ” Fresh Start Conservatism .”

This jumped out at me:

The first group of policies would foster two-parent families. If all American families looked like the intact middle-class ones, we wouldn’t have nationally low education outcomes. Married men earn 10 percent to 40 percent more than single men with similar skills, and their children are much more likely to graduate from high school. But among the lower-middle class, there is a poisonous spiral of economic stress and cultural decay.

A new working class tax credit applied against the payroll tax would reduce some of the stress. So would a larger child tax credit and increases in the Earned Income Tax Credit. The federal budget should bestow less on seniors and more on young families.

Tax policy, no doubt, plays a part in fostering stable families and marital childbearing. But somehow I don’t think it plays the primary part. We might need to look somewhere other than government to accomplish this great task. Conservatism, whether fresh or stale, should know that. So what can the state do to empower those organs of civil society that make the difference on the ground? Getting out of the way may be a start.