Posted on 03/03/2007 9:38:09 PM PST by carlo3b
Numbers Drop for the Married With Children
Institution Becoming The Choice of the Educated, AffluentBy Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 4, 2007; Page A03PORTLAND, Ore. -- Punctuating a fundamental change in American family life, married couples with children now occupy fewer than one in every four households -- a share that has been slashed in half since 1960 and is the lowest ever recorded by the census.
As marriage with children becomes an exception rather than the norm, social scientists say it is also becoming the self-selected province of the college-educated and the affluent. The working class and the poor, meanwhile, increasingly steer away from marriage, while living together and bearing children out of wedlock.
"The culture is shifting, and marriage has almost become a luxury item, one that only the well educated, one that only the well educated and well paid are interested in," said Isabel V. Sawhill, an expert on marriage and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
That is VERY key. The article tries to make this sound like only VERY wealthy people get married and have children.
Ain't so...and they say so later on. It's race, for the most part...and the welfare state...and the culture that says it's okay to breed without a daddy.
This article says all that...but they couch it in terms acceptable to the Washington Post.
You summed it up...YOUR friends are still marrying...and so are mine.
The blame needs to be placed firmly on the shoulders of "The Great Society".
Having grown up, and ... ? ( BEARING in mind the topic of discussion )
liberal male lawyers.
I understand what it is implying, but the numbers of broken homes and fatherless kids is staggering.. I know what the Post is parsing the stats, but the married, unmarried, facts are disastrous.. The article only reminds me of the sorry state of our culture..
Still have doubts about their methods. Remember the left is selling "the village" concept and it does not surprise me in the slightest that their research validates their claims.
"[W]hen People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners,
they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign
Invaders." --Samuel Adams
"The foundation of national morality must be laid in private
families. ... How is it possible that Children can have any just
Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if,
from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in
habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as
constant Infidelity to their Mothers?" --John Adams
... since I'm asking you, I'll say that I am an 0 for 2 nongrandad, late in my grandad career.
You know, it's not economics, politics, or morality, it's technology - birth control. Ok, economics, politics, morality AND technology.
Anyway, time was, you pretty much had kids whether you meant to or not.
"That's the way God planned it. That's the way God wanted it to be."
Understand: they want everything in the world. Having things both ways is their specialty.
When they are young, they imitate libertine manners and social values. Eventually, the party ends.
Then they grow old and expect all the admiration that virtue and personal industry can bring. (Not to be mistaken for a trust fund... no, they were blessed by capital investment and so must inflict socialism on the rest of us.)
But yes, marriage is only proper for Beautiful People.
Sorry, I dson't buy it, that is why we are in this state.. I blame the narcissistic baby boomer's methods of raising the past two generations..
I agree completely!
Losers! Not only do my wife and I meet with our children's teachers often, I do the cooking too! Of course my wife would cook, but she prefers me to do it, and so do I lol.
Eaker and TheMom are about to hit 22 years.
Marriage works for some.
It is not longer because we are not older.
We are getting older so it will get longer.
We will be together for ever.
One of her single friends was left at the alter. The guy was a PIG!
This article is somewhat hyperbolic.
22 years.. Bless both of you.. :)
Blaine Harden, Eastern European correspondent, The Washington Post
This article fails to consider the age distribution of the population. Baby boomers, the single largest "cohort" in the population (~75 million people) are now beginning to reach retirement age --- obviously they don't have children living in the same household so their numbers will skew the statistics. The "base year" cited, 1970, would have been when the leading edge of the baby boomers were spewing out children. In the nearly 40 years since then, their children have grown up and left home.
I'd be willing to bet that if you looked at similar age groupings, you'd find little difference between 1970 and now. If this article represents professional level "staff research" by a major newspaper, it is pathetically bad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.