The Economist on the Fraying of Marriage in America
From today’s issue of The Economist:
If marriage affected only the two people who choose (or not) to wed, it would be easier to ignore falling marriage rates. But with them come rising out-of-wedlock birth rates. In 2010, 40.8% of all births were to unmarried mothers. Among Hispanics that figure was 53%, and among blacks 73%. In 1965 Daniel Patrick Moynihan, later a Democratic senator from New York, called for emergency federal intervention to aid in “the establishment of a stable Negro family structure”, and justified it in part by an out-of-wedlock birth rate among blacks of 23.6%—half what it is today.
With illegitimate births come single-parent homes, in which 35% of all American children lived in 2011. Children brought up in such homes fare worse than children raised by married parents over a range of academic and emotional outcomes, from adolescent delinquency to dropping out of school. The poverty rate among single-parent, female-headed families is over five times that of married, two-parent families. Nearly 71% of poor families lack married parents. And children brought up in poverty tend to be poor themselves.
Enough said.
Posted on January 11, 2013, in Marriage. Bookmark the permalink. 3 Comments.
Charles Murray’s latest book, “Coming Apart,” is pretty frightening (and thorough) in its depiction of a society divided by norms such as these and its consequences.
More couples in these groups would marry but, it is economically more beneficial for them not to marry. If two minimum wage workers marry then they no longer qualify for free medical for their children, food stamps and earned income credit. At least half of the percentage you quoted it would be interesting to know how many of those couples who had a child actually live as a couple. Probably about half. Although I know many people who have lived together for 20 years (through work) and raised children together it still is not really their husband or wife. It does leave the door wide open to easily walk out, infidelity and later financial instability.
“And children brought up in poverty tend to be poor themselves.” How is this mathmatically possible?