Sexonomics and poverty in the hood

Yesterday I had the honor of speaking to hundreds of 9th graders in Natchez, Mississippi, about, among other things, their sexual behavior. The following from HHH (p. 125) makes the point:

"Poverty is entrenched in the hood for many reasons, including teen pregnancy. Brothers & Sisters, we need to wake up and realize that sex and economics are intimately connected. My editor calls this 'sexonomics,' which is the impact of irresponsible sex on cash flow in the hood."

She says, 'When the court makes you pay to support a child that was conceived during a loveless one-night stand, that’s sexonomics. When you spend money on a date to get her into bed, that’s sexonomics. When you get on the pole and shake your money maker to make him pay, that’s sexonomics. When you spend money on medical care because of an STD that came from having unprotected sex with a person you didn’t know, was down low, or low down, that’s sexonomics. The impact of sexonomics is felt at both the micro and macro levels. The best way to build wealth is to have sex with one husband or wife for the rest of your life. In the African American community, love and money are more on the liability and loss side than the profit and assets side of the ledger.'

"We must continue to educate our teens on the consequences (negative and positive) of their sexual behavior, perhaps by tapping into their Hip Hop values of materialism, consumerism, and getting paid. If we show them how sex and pregnancies outside of marriage contribute to poverty, we may see their behavior change. In the meantime:
1. Black teens are more likely than white or Hispanic youth to have had sexual intercourse, to begin sexual activity at an earlier age, and to have had more than four sexual partners.
2. Although pregnancies for black teens (aged 15 to 19) declined 23 percent between 1990 and 1997, they still have the highest pregnancy rate among all major racial and ethnic groups and are more likely than other adolescents to have children outside of marriage. (Hispanic teens have the highest teen birth rate.)" (From the CDC's "2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey" and "Births: Final Data for 2002," National Center for Health Statistics)