Becasue of the collapse of the moral values. Getting married is no longer considered vogue, having abortion on demand with pills, and living the lifestyle of Rosie ODonnell and Madonna is the vogue.
The Christian-Judeo values are considered old hat.
Revelation predicted the fall of man, due to his faithless ways.
Not to denigrate the responses of the men here, but I am a divorced female and we also suffer from the effects of divorce. My ex-husband paid me half of the equity we had in our house, which came to only $13,000. Now the house has appreciated by at least $200,000, and he is the benefactor.
He lost interest in our 3 children while I have struggled to put them through college. He pays $2500 a year and I pay the rest. He says he can't afford more, but he owns two new cars and just put a two-car garage on the house for his new wife and step-daughter. He also bought them a new computer. By the way, he is a federal employee and now makes at least $120,000 a year.
Child support ended when the youngest turned 18 and there is no alimony because I am a nurse and it is easy for me to get a job that pays $50,000 a year.
I am not complaining, just illustrating that it works both ways. It is a matter of pride for me to put my children through college with only the pittance he pays.
In my opinion, the basic reason why our society is damaged is because we have turned our backs on God.
The problem with marriage today is that it is a social contract no longer supported by society.
Men and women have a basic, animal-like biological relationship with each other, in which the prerogative of the male is to impregnate as many females as possible, and the female has a double prerogative to get both the best sperm donor available and the best provider available to help her raise her offspring. When there are many men, usually not the same man.
This kind of relationship is common in the animal kingdom.
However, as I said, this is a "basic" relationship, and far from satisfactory for men or women, or their children. And *this* is why marriage was devised.
Marriage, as a social contract, benefited a man because it was a promise from the woman that her children would be his. In turn, it benefited her, with his promise to *only* make her children, and *only* raise her children. And, of course, it strongly benefited the children.
But the flaw in marriage is that it only works well as a contract, when society as a whole *enforces* that contract. Partners in a marriage were "hands off", under penalty of law. It also has the flaw that "economic marriage", for money rather than children, invalidates the contract.
The purpose of marriage must be children, or it is not marriage.
Philosophies evolved over many years that put down marriage as "unnatural", and also "unfair", and strongly undermined it, by people who wanted a return to a more animalistic state.
And that is what they got. Which, as I said before, is "unsatisfactory" to both men and women, and their children. And glaringly obvious to everyone.
So society is now trying to replicate the social contract of marriage in the courts, and may well do so, if not as well, by giving both men and women what they want out of marriage. With this in mind, it is easy to predict what will eventually evolve.
First of all, all States require some kind of child support from males who are financially responsible for a child. This has lead to some States demanding that when a woman gives birth, she must name who she believes is the father, so that the State may pursue such support from him.
But in the future, with this information, hospitals will be required to take a DNA sample of the mother and her child from the umbilical cord, and retain it for a period of time. Then the purported father will be notified. At this time, he will then have the option of taking a DNA test himself.
1) He may take the DNA test, and if he is the father, he can assert paternity. He can also assert paternity if he is not the father, with the agreement of the mother.
2) If he takes the DNA test and discovers he is not the father, and refuses to take paternity, by law he must either end any relationship with the mother and her child completely, or he automatically assumes responsibility. He cannot have one and not the other.
3) If he refuses to take the DNA test, he may still be compelled at some time to take it by court order, to establish if he has paternity. Or he may refuse to take it and assert paternity because he trusts the mother, but it justs smooths things all around if he knows for sure.
This provides through the law and technology what was once provided through marriage. For him, that the children are his, and for her, that he no longer seeks to impregnate other women and is legally required to care for her children. And it also helps the children.
The bottom line is that we lost a great deal with the loss of marriage as a contract and institution. And while marriage is not a complete loss, only the luckiest of us will profit from it in the future. For the rest, the courts will have to pick up the slack.
And for the unhappy ones, who rejected marriage in the first place, they will continue to live like animals, and think they are more "liberated" because of it. And they and their children will continue to suffer for it, mitigated at least in part by the law.
Because the man will lose over half of his stuff including his retirement savings, the woman will get the kids and the man will have to pay a rediculous amount of child support or face jail. There is no reason for a man to get married.
There could be a lack of males out there too. We have one at home at 25, no job, looking, but spends more hours in his room playing video games than seriously finding a job. We live in FL so its not easy for a 24 yr. old computer oriented wiz kid to find something suitable. He has no social activities thus he also lacks the exposure.
The answer is easy. Marriage sucks.
When the phrase "my baby's daddy" comes into widespread use you can make certain assumptions about marriage and class.
Because the single women aren't fit to marry. They are mindnumbed human deritus.
This SLIMES study has already been dissected and proven wrong.
Another manipulation of statistics by the Liberal press ping.
Why buy the cow...
BUMP
NYT drivel using their previously discredited article.
They are bootstraping a fake article trying to wash it with subsequent articles.
The fact is there are more unmarried women because they are feminists in attitude and feminsits are just not worth the effort. Feminists are for recreational sex, not for marriage. (at least the non-physically ugly ones) [flame suit on]
I find it VERY interesting the NYT is pushing the marriage is eeeeevil agenda after their homosexual dominated staff went all hissy fit for homosexual based marriage.
This is just a warm up, I think they are going for a Martha Burke style end game scenario.
They are even less likely to be widowed all in all, less likely to end up alone.
So she goes first????? I am sorry but I don't understand this statement.
Why Are There So Many Single Americans?
I assumed it was because most of them have met my ex!
As a 53 year old single male, let me pretend I'm an expert on this subject.....
I'm tired of the "spriritual/not religious" women.
I'm tired of trying to adjust to the single mom's kids, where it's unfare of me to bring in a new set of rules OR expect me to sit in the corner and shut up.
I'm tired of the women who think I should be ready to retire and sail (or fly) them around the world.
The ladies near my age that don't fit these profiles are happily married, and for a good reason!
A single marital status is frequently a factor that leads to poverty. Getting married is the fastest way.
Naturally, the NYT writer considers it depressing and unfair, and frames it as negatively as possible, but even she has to admit the statistical fact that getting married and staying married correlates to financial success.
Look for the followup article, calling for reparations...
>> the marriage rate has declined equally for men and for women.
Wow!
This is one of the most poorly-written articles I have ever read. It's almost as if English is a second language to the writer.
Marriage: The RISKIEST business decision a man can make.