A few good men.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills - Brief Article

In West Virginia, only one in four former welfare recipients whose benefits had expired have found jobs, according to a study by West Virginia University reported by the Charleston Gazette's Scott Finn. More than half of those jobs are part-time. The average former welfare family is earning $6,120 a year. National figures show that although the number of people on welfare declined by 149,000 from Dec. 31, 2002, to Dec. 31, 2003, the number in poverty rose by 1.3 million.

There is no question that welfare reform has succeeded in getting people off the rolls, and, unlike in West Virginia, in many places there are jobs available, albeit mostly low-paying ones. But even with jobs, according to Jason DeParle's important new book American Dream, too many of time lives of former recipients remain chaotic. DeParle shows how...