Posted on 02/20/2012 8:04:28 AM PST by bigbob
It used to be called illegitimacy. Now it is the new normal. After steadily rising for five decades, the share of children born to unmarried women has crossed a threshold: more than half of births to American women under 30 occur outside marriage.
Once largely limited to poor women and minorities, motherhood without marriage has settled deeply into middle America. The fastest growth in the last two decades has occurred among white women in their 20s who have some college education but no four-year degree, according to Child Trends, a Washington research group that analyzed government data.
Among mothers of all ages, a majority — 59 percent in 2009 — are married when they have children. But the surge of births outside marriage among younger women — nearly two-thirds of children in the United States are born to mothers under 30 — is both a symbol of the transforming family and a hint of coming generational change.
One group still largely resists the trend: college graduates, who overwhelmingly marry before having children. That is turning family structure into a new class divide, with the economic and social rewards of marriage increasingly reserved for people with the most education.
“Marriage has become a luxury good,” said Frank Furstenberg, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
His Excellency’s comment: “I don’t want my girls punished by having a baby”. That is the world turned on its head.
Dear Mr. Excellency, I don’t want society punished by unmarried people having kids and becoming wards of the state and I surely don’t want to pay for it. You need to get your head out of your backside and do something to promote responsiblity. Simply authorizing abortions is not the answer because the alternative is having children whom become dependent on taxpayers. Bad choice either way.
Thank you for sharing your story. In spite of the sin, you were able to turn your life around, with God’s help, and that’s inspiring to hear.
And as you mention, the innocent victims of what parents are doing are their children. If parents took their responsibilities as parents more seriously, the children will be better off for it.
Hollywood and other media are the ones to be held accountable for the destruction of America morals, and yet we purchase and view.
We tend to laugh with them, then suddenly one day we say "how did this happen", we didn't mean it too when we laughed. Too late..
Lots of new voters for the socialist successors of Obama
So my daughter and her husband married at 19 after being friends since 5th grade. He is a full-time college student and she is a live-out nanny, and they held to traditional values of marriage, not living together, saving intimacy for marriage, etc. You would NOT believe how many people trashed them for not living together and getting married instead. It has been almost a year and some of his immediate family members just told him in the past week that he ruined his life and theirs by choosing to get married...the same family members who have been and are currently in live-in relationships (multiple times!) In these days people are calling right wrong, and wrong right. What a valueless society we are living in!
Excellent! I trust my shiny new dime will be forthcoming ;-)
But per post #14, I think “Idiocracy” might be a better title for a book!
this is a trend that cannot endure forever...That is, at least the government cannot afford to support the majority of new children on welfare.
I’m not sure how it will end when the laws of reality can no longer support such an ingrained part of our culture.
I have noticed this anecdotally watching young mothers in public pushing around their baby strollers. Either no man present or a young punk dressed like an Eminem wannabe.
Truly an End of Civilization moment.
I did not know that Bergan said that, its good, but a day late and a dollar short. Damage done to him and America.
Charles Murray predicted this almost 20 years ago in his prophetic essay in The Wall Street Journal entitled “The Coming White Underclass”.
The first hit will produce the full text of that article. Sorry, can’t post a direct link.
If this is a subject that matters to you, take a few minutes to read Mr. Murray’s piece....
If you remember, during the 90’s it was successful single women wanting to have children.
Out-of-wedlock births, one parent households and walk-away fathers should have been Michelle Obama’s “issue” instead of dictating what every child may or may not eat.
She could have spoken to these problems and encouraged an end to multiple out-of-wedlock births, a return to marriage and two parent homes as no other public figure could, and without being attacked as a racist.
But she chose an easy, simplistic, non-controversial matter as her hallmark issue
You hit that nail on the head! Personally, I just LOVE the piercings and ultra-trashy tattoos...they just add so much gusto to the scene.
“Truly an End of Civilization moment.”
Perfectly summarized.
I don't think we are headed there. We are there. Hardly a week goes by that we don't reference lines from “Idiocracy” in our family discussions.
“Idiocracy” is amazingly social commentary. Look at this past week, with all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the premature death of Whitney Houston. Yes, she was a gifted singer. Yes, she was beautiful. But she chose to throw it all away. Anyone who didn't see that coming truly is oblivious to reality. But meanwhile, the tributes go on and on. The American flag is at half mast while the American public is continuously treated to a living soap opera with her husband and daughter getting stoned after the funeral. Sales of her recordings go higher and higher. Her memorabilia is snatched up as more and more is produced - further tributes to a modern day heroine who happened to be drug addict.
Have a baby and start collecting as many checks as possible. That is the new norm for a large chunk of America — no matter what race. No thought of marriage. No thought of supporting yourself. I see it all the time in the charity work I do. Girls in their 20s having 1, 2 or 3 kids and knowing right away where to go to collect a check. Then one finds out about a new way to get another goverment subsidy and they all go after it. And these are girls of all races (in fact, most are white). These are girls whose grandparents used to be blue collar workers. Now they are all part of the dependent class. And Obama is spending millions to market food stamps and other government assistance to them.
I almost expected the funeral to be sponsored by Carl's Jr.
“college graduates, who overwhelmingly marry before having children. That is turning family structure into a new class divide, with the economic and social rewards of marriage increasingly reserved for people with the most education.”
Obama has a new category to tax in his class divide crusade.
It is astonishing.
Severely overweight women and many fatherless children and thuggish boys who sire them...many black..many white.
In the lower income areas it is the norm not the exception now.
Lower classed whites are now very similar in behavior to black cultural behavior that has destroyed most of their communities.
We deal with them...these kids are the children and grandchildren of the Free Bird generation.
Think the Matthew McConahey character in Dazed and Confused..his kids and grand-kids...
the cultural decline in my part of TN is very very sad
my homestate of MS is not this bad and I did not see this so much in my tour of the Plains and Rocky Mountain west this past summer
but Middle Tennessee now has some extremely trashy white areas...large swaths
and unwed births is the main reason...MTV and hip hop culture as well
military and political battles won...cultural battles lost
We have become a bastard nation.
Barring a miracle, we are doomed.
Caveat: I do believe in miracles.
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