“Some boys and many girls are not only capable of being married at puberty, but really need to go ahead and start their lives.”
Start their lives how, exactly? Even if they had the emotional and mental maturity to handle a marriage at age 14, they’d have no marketable education and would be effectively unemployable. And if they start a family right away, their expenses would increase exponentially.
Marrying before age 20 might have been practical before making a living wage required at least a high school education, but it’s not now. And I sure as heck wouldn’t want to marry any of the girls I had crushes on when I was 20, let alone 14!
The very kids that should probably go ahead and start their grown lives are in large part the same people that will end up working at those jobs eventually.
They would have a 10 year head start on those that stay in school and go to college, which might go a long way towards closing the income gap. There is no reason at all for someone with a 90 IQ to finish high school and spend several years and 10’s of thousands trying to get a college degree ... only in the end to wind up working at the same job they would of 10 years earlier.