RELEASE: Family Affordability - Building Social Capital at Home

Sep 21

Social Capital Campaign provides conservative policies for Hispanic voters—tackling family affordability with five policy solutions

Today the Social Capital Campaign, with the National Hispanic Pastors Alliance, sets out five conservative policies that would make it easier to financially support a family if adopted by a new Administration: “Family Affordability—Building Social Capital at Home” focuses on the 1 in 4 children who are Hispanic and mostly living in poverty in America today where:

The cost of raising a child in America today is $300,000 from birth to age 18. If you have more than one child, that’s half a million dollars or more
American ranks near the bottom of OECD countries for parent happiness compared to non-parents
The federal government spends less share of its GDP on children than any other developed country except Mexico and Turkey
According to one study, 1 in 4 mothers return to work within two weeks of giving birth, usually out of financial necessity

The report recognizes that Hispanic voters have high levels of social capital, as measured by marriage, multigenerational households, and church attendance, which supports economic opportunity. But current federal policy fails them where:

More Hispanic children are living in poverty—4.2 million in 2020—than children of any other racial or ethnic group
Hispanics have a higher labor force participation rate than average, but the least access to paid leave, flexible work schedules, and remote work options from their employers
Hispanic families have a lower uptake of government benefits than any other racial or ethnic group, despite their eligibility

“Families are the backbone of society. As conservatives, there needs to be more thought about how to better support children and parents in periods of financial fragility, especially in a post-Dobbs environment,” says report author Abby McCloskey.

Current government policies are not helping to secure this solid social capital foundation. In fact, current policy undermines family affordability by making housing, education, childcare, and even marriage more costly.

The report cites research that shows how working mothers have a stark choice to make upon giving birth without access to paid leave: take on debt, go back to work within weeks of giving birth, go on food stamps and government welfare. Costs are also linked to abortion—75% of abortions are now performed for women in poverty or low-income. Half of parenting-age Americans say they would like to have more children than they have had, with low- and moderate-income families citing affordability as their main reason.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
To increase family affordability, to help build social capital at home, the report recommends:

Removing government barriers that drive up costs in—housing, school, childcare, healthcare, and marriage
Implementing a national paid parental leave program so that all new parents can afford to bond with their infants
Simplify existing government programs into a monthly cash benefit
Create more opportunities for work flexibility conducive to family life
Equip and engage the local community, including churches, for their on-the-ground support of families.