Posted on 04/15/2008 6:36:59 AM PDT by mombyprofession
NEW YORK — Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year, according to a study commissioned by four groups advocating more government action to bolster marriages.
Sponsors say the study is the first of its kind and hope it will prompt lawmakers to invest more money in programs aimed at strengthening marriages. Two experts not connected to the study said such programs are of dubious merit and suggested that other investments — notably job creation — would be more effective in aiding all types of needy families.
There have been previous attempts to calculate the cost of divorce in America. But the sponsors of the new study, being released Tuesday, said theirs is the first to gauge the broader cost of "family fragmentation" — both divorce and unwed childbearing.
The study was conducted by Georgia State University economist Ben Scafidi. His work was sponsored by four groups who consider themselves part of a nationwide "marriage movement" — the New York-based Institute for American Values, the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, Families Northwest of Redmond, Wash., and the Georgia Family Council, an ally of the conservative ministry Focus on the Family.
"The study documents for the first time that divorce and unwed childbearing — besides being bad for children — are costing taxpayers a ton of money," said David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
More government inaction would be more appropriate. It was "Government Action" that is/was the major factor in weakening marriage in the first place.
The fact that they have been in prison gives us a clue as to what kind of person they are.
Stop handing out taxpayers’ money to family-fragments. Problem solved.
Stop subsidizing out of wedlock babies, the more babies the more $$. You get more of what you subsidize. Economics 101.
Ok, now I’m confused :)
I thought the big thing in schools is to teach kids marriage isn’t important, give them condoms at the school prom and if they want to have a passionate love affair with a sheep, that’s ok, too, just DON’T talk about a man and woman getting married and staying married.
I don’t know which is worse, the groups “advocating more government action to bolster marriages” or the fact $112 BILLION of our hard earned tax money is being spent on “out of wedlock childbearing”. It’s just a result of the liberal, hippie, take no responsibility for your actions mentality these same folks have been spouting since the 60s.
It takes a village.
:o/
Yep, like Rush says, you get more of what you pay for. So what do we do, give pregnant teenagers checks to have babies while our popular culture glorifies casual sex. A blind man could see that’s a recipe for disaster, but the average politician apparently can’t.
There is no social problem we face today that isn’t the result of some “liberal” policy.
Another truism about “liberalism” -
there is NO freedom that they support other than those related to consequence-free sexual activity outside of the context of marriage.
We don’t need new government programs. The problem is the infestation of moral relativism, which by definition removes the stigma of shame from such behavior. The elimination of social pressure and the consequences of aberrant behavior, when combined with federal and state entitlement rewards, has created a non-punishable free-for-all.
No amount of money in the form of social programs will fix the problem because we are no longer permitted to scorn such behavior.
I agree; I can't think of anything government could do to strengthen marriage, especially when liberalism is working constantly to undermine it.
My personal theory is that divorce became more prevalent when major anti-society influences during the 1960s, like feminism, various psychologists, and the porn-lite industry (like Hugh Hefner, movie makers, TV writers, etc.) began to make people of both sexes feel that they had a "right" to put their own pleasure before anything else in life, to abandon faith, responsibility, and morality in pursuit of sex and fun. It became officially and socially okay to ditch your spouse and kids, to screw around, to wreck lives, if you pleased. "I have to do what's right for me," became the mantra of the period.
And as a society we are so terrified of being called judgmental (the worst insult you can address to someone apart from calling him a child molester) that we don't condemn people who do such slimy things. Selfish men and women are given tacit permission or approval by a society that rewards infidelity.
How government could rectify this, I can't imagine.
Stop alleviating the consequences of choosing NOT to get married. That would be the only thing that the gov't could "do".
Marriage of one man and one woman is the "natural" state of human existance, and the only thing that any gov't can do is interfere with this via perverse incentives.
The average politician, imo, sees people who will obediently vote for the politician who promises to keep the handouts coming and never say anything "judgmental."
It's possible that they're so stupid that they just don't understand the cause and effect, but I think they'd stop breathing then.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1922149/posts
The stupid left supports policies that are ultimately destructive because they are ignorant of the long term consequences, and the policies make them feel good right now.
The satanic left supports policies KNOWING that they are destructive, but supporting those policies gives them power (from the stupid).
“...Nobody knows exactly the strategies which are going to work.”
Gee! Maybe getting our bloated quasi-Socialist Government with their Leftist Secular perspectives out of our personal lives, and restoring respect for Religion and the morals of yore might be a start.
IOW get back to Americanism.
Take back my money from out-of-wedlock-childbearers and YOU WON'T NEED TO SPEND ANY MORE OF MY MONEY.
Who are these socialist/idiots and WHAT are they CONFISCATING my money for?
Very good post. And good article. I have a friend who is “stupid left.” Intellectually, she’s not dumb, actually quite the opposite, but she doesn’t apply any gray matter whatsoever toward her political views. It’s ALL about how she feels. She votes for the satanic left, of course.
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