 The following is an excerpt from J. Neil Schulman's book 
 SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control, to be published Nov. 30,
 1995 by Synapse--Centurion.  Reproduction in computer file
 and message bases is permitted for informational purposes
 only. Copyright (c) 1995 by J. Neil Schulman.  All other
 rights reserved.


                       THE GENERAL WELFARE


      Orphanages? Is that the best our politicians can imagine
for solving the problem of how to discourage single women from
gaining welfare benefits by having children they can't support?

     Everybody _finally_ seems to have gotten the idea--for
which right-wingers have been called heartless--that welfare was
a terrible socialist idea because it created an incentive for
indolence. Herbert Spencer told us a century ago that "survival
of the fittest" would adapt itself so that if the criteria of
fitness is the ability of a woman to have children she can't
support, women who have children they can't support would be best
fitted for survival. Nobel-laureate Milton Friedman tells us,
similarly, that if you create a demand for people not to work,
the market will satisfy that demand.

     Many have compared welfare to drug addiction, with the
welfare bureaucracy as an enabler. This metaphor is particularly
useful in that depriving welfare "addicts" of their fix doesn't
refit them for survival in the competitive marketplace any more
than merely cutting addicts off makes them capable of dealing
with the reasons they started drugs. The American working class,
after three decades of having their pockets picked to support
those who don't work, seem now to be cynical enough to ignore
continued liberal cries for their indulgence.

     But just what are the American people supposed to _do_
with women and children who, because of a half-century of dumb
public policy, are not fitted for supporting themselves? Putting
young moms out in the snow with babes in arms just doesn't fit
the American character; on the other hand, neither does being
played again as a sucker.

     How about a return to a public policy of encouraging
family values for welfare mothers?

     Back in the "good old days" before Betty Friedan
convinced women that they could consider work, and unpaid bills
convinced them that they'd better, men brought home the bacon and
women cooked it. When, in 1955, Arthur Godfrey asked my mother on
TV what she did, my mother proudly answered that she was a
housewife. This might seem like second-class citizenship for a
1990's woman who's image of a career is Sally Ride or Gloria
Allred, but for a young mother unable to feed her child, a man to
support them might be heaven.

     If we're going to be serious about ending the dole for
single mothers with dependent children, we have to ask where
they're going to end up. If we do nothing more than cut them
off--even after some grace period--we just push women unable,
simultaneously, to handle work and child care onto the street to
beg for quarters. I doubt anyone, no matter how tough their talk,
thinks homeless shelters are a wholesome place for children.

     We could alternatively place unsupported children in
foster homes or orphanages. Yet yanking children from their
natural mothers for mere poverty seems contrary to the family
values we all proclaim.

     Or we could create separate shelters run by social
workers, where welfare families can continue to be supported. But  
wouldn't this just be admitting that we have no way out of this
socialist nightmare other than having taxpayers continue to act
as surrogate parents?

      The position of the modern welfare state isn't too
different from that of a father, in the old days, with a wayward
daughter. Where was he going to find a man willing to marry a
daughter who'd already had another man's child?

     Wherever there's an excess of men, that's where. On the
Internet. At science fiction conventions. Gun clubs. Libertarian
meetings. Wherever there are productive but socially
underdeveloped men whose best hope for a sexual encounter is
Joycelyn Elders' recent advice.

     You want to solve the welfare crisis? Get the single
welfare mothers together with the guys who didn't get dates in
high school because they were in the math club rather than out on
the gridiron.

     The technology to find husbands for welfare mothers is
off-the-shelf stuff: everything from ballroom dancing to video
dating. Uncle Sam must give way to Dolly Levi. Socialism will be
put away by the Ice Cream Social.

     Okay, maybe I'm going off the deep end here. But maybe
not. Is having the government play matchmaker for our wayward
daughters any crazier than public policy continuing to enable
unwed motherhood?

                                ***


                         THE NEW BOOK
                    from J. Neil Schulman!

                           Author of 
        STOPPING POWER: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns


                 SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control


   "Schulman interestingly and insightfully raises a number of
  liberty-related issues that we ignore at the nation's peril.
   His ideas are precisely those that helped make our country
  the destination of those seeking liberty.  The book's title
 says it all: personal responsibility, not laws and prohibitions,
                is the mark of a civil society."
     Professor Walter E. Williams, Chairman
     Department of Economics
     George Mason University
     Fairfax, Virginia


Publisher: Synapse--Centurion
Price: $24.95 U.S.; $32.95 Canada
Publication Date: November 30, 1995
Approx. Shipping Date: Oct. 15, 1995
ISBN: 1-882639-05-7
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 95-74682

Full info is on J. Neil Schulman's World Wide Web Page at:  
http://www.pinsight.com/~zeus/jneil/ or download the file
SELFCONT.ZIP from GunTalk.

                     *** ORDER INFO ***

Synapse--Centurion Books is now accepting pre-printing wholesale 
orders for whole cases of SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control at 60% 
off cover price -- $10 per book and 24 books per case -- IF 
THE ORDER WITH FULL PAYMENT IS RECEIVED ON OR BEFORE 
SEPTEMBER 20TH, 1995.  

To mail-order SELF CONTROL Not Gun Control, send a check or money 
order for $240 per case plus $25 shipping & handling per case to:

Synapse--Centurion
225 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 1204
Santa Monica, CA  90401

Orders will be shipped by UPS ground unless a P.O. Box is given,
in which event they will be shipped parcel post.  California 
booksellers include your California reseller's number with
your order; otherwise, California residents include California 
sales tax of $19.80 per case.

Telephone credit card orders  -- Visa, MasterCard, Discover/Novus,
or American Express -- may be recorded on our hotline at 
500-367-7353.  

If ordering by phone, please state clearly:

1) The cardholder's name; 
2) The cardholder's daytime telephone number;
3) The credit card number and expiration date;
4) The seller's California reseller's number
       (If a California reseller's number is not 
       included, $19.80 per case in sales tax will 
       be added to orders shipped to California 
       addresses.);
5) The number of 24-book cases to be ordered 
       (at $240 per case plus $25 s&h per case);
6) The address to ship the books
       (If a post office box is given, the books will
       be shipped parcel post instead of UPS.).

Again, to be given this pre-printing price, orders will full 
payment must be received by September 20, 1995.  Books will be 
shipped approximately October 15, 1995.

 
     Reply to:
  J. Neil Schulman
  Mail:                 P.O. Box 94, Long Beach, CA 90801-0094
  Voice Mail:           (500) 44-JNEIL
  Fax:                  1-500-445-6345
  Internet:             jneil@genie.com
  World Wide Web Page:  http://www.pinsight.com/~zeus/jneil/ 

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