In his 2012 book, "Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010" (excerpted here), Charles Murray offered an idea about how to ameliorate the alarming social decline and stratification that he chronicled:

There remains a core of civic virtue and involvement in working-class America that could make headway against its problems if the people who are trying to do the right things get the reinforcement they need--not in the form of government assistance, but in validation of the values and standards they continue to uphold. The best thing that the new upper class can do to provide that reinforcement is to drop its condescending "nonjudgmentalism." Married, educated people who work hard and conscientiously raise their kids shouldn't hesitate to voice their disapproval of those who defy these norms. When it comes to marriage and the work ethic, the new upper class must start preaching what it practices.

From our friend Keli Goff of TheRoot.com we learn that Mayor Michael Bloomberg, personification of the educated liberal elite, has been attempting to do just that. His effort has met with fierce resistance from within that elite, demonstrating why "preaching what it practices" is easier said than done. And a deeper analysis of the problem suggests that moral suasion is unlikely to solve or even make much of a dent in the problem.

At issue is a subway ad campaign by the New York City Department of Social Services. It features photos of grumpy-looking infants (carefully chosen for racial diversity), captioned by messages to their putative parents, written in a toddler-like scrawl. Examples: "Dad, you'll be paying to support me for the next 20 years." "Honestly Mom . . . chances are he won't stay with you. What happens to me?" "If you finish high school, get a job, and get married before having children, you have a 98% chance of not being in poverty." Viewers of the ad are invited to "text 'NOTNOW' to 877877 for the real cost of teen pregnancy."

"The campaign pulls no punches," writes Goff, though in fact it pulls a very large punch by defining the problem as "teen pregnancy" rather than illegitimate childbearing. If an 18-year-old woman marries and has a child, that's almost certainly better for society, and for the child, than if she waits until she's 20 and gives birth out of wedlock.

Goff describes the opposition to the Bloomberg ad campaign: