So, CNN is reporting that a study shows single parents cost taxpayers $112 billion.
Of course, the observant reader will notice that the "... work was sponsored by four groups ... the New York-based Institute for American Values, the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, Families Northwest of Redmond, Washington, and the Georgia Family Council, an ally of the conservative ministry Focus on the Family."
As you might expect, when advocacy groups (of any political persuasion) support any kind of study, the outcome is strangely correlated with their agenda.
There is a good discussion of the particular trick used to achieve the result with this study in this post (at the Freakonomics blog).
Summary:
"But the first law of advocacy science coincides with a well-known economic principle: any cost-benefit analysis that only looks at one side of the ledger will always come to a reliable conclusion."
"But the first law of advocacy science coincides with a well-known economic principle: any cost-benefit analysis that only looks at one side of the ledger will always come to a reliable conclusion."
But the Republican National Committee did a study and found that that was a perfectly valid conclusion. And also that I should send them money.
I believe that that was the same study that determined that facts have a liberal bias.