Posted on 12/27/2010 2:33:51 PM PST by neverdem
Foreclosures, plant closings, offshored jobs, underwater mortgages, miserable rates of unemployment, stagnating incomes: Is there any end to the woes of the struggling American middle? Apparently not, because now comes news of a trend guaranteeing trouble ahead for the more than half of the nation that make up the moderately educated and moderately earning middle — even if the economy improves.
That seismic shift, outlined in a new report from the National Marriage Project and the Institute for American Values, is towards more divorce, more out of wedlock births and, ipso facto, fewer kids with a hopeful future.
Family breakdown, to put it simply, has hit white middle America big time.
Researchers have known for a while now that there is a significant "marriage gap" between affluent couples and low-income, largely minority, ones. The children of well-to-do college educated couples are considerably more likely to be growing up in a home with both their mother and father present than the children of the poor — who are more often than not living without their fathers. It surprises most people to hear it, but rates of divorce among college-educated women have actually been declining since 1980...
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
They forgot:
High taxes
Supporting endless litters of illegitimate children
This is Obama’s goal. Eliminate the middle class, and create two classes, the Nomenclatura-elites and the masses of poor, dependent on the government.
Guess which class Obama and his Marxist buddies are in.
Poll Results
Has the dismissal of marriage in society caused a deterioration of the American family?
Yes 39%
No 59%
I don't know 1%
I know this is a NY paper but that wasn't a rocket science question.
I think they are quite successful.
I read they’ve added 17 million to the food stamp rolls in 2 years.
I always laugh at the “grow up without their fathers” data.
Of course the kids grow up without their fathers: the family court system is designed to alienate the fathers and remove them from the rearing of their children.
Most certainly, but they forget that this poor population has guns. A poor, demoralized population with rage at politicians is not a good combination.
I won’t consider the middle class extinct until millions of people take up arms against the government.
The last paragraph:
“Not so long ago, the moderately educated were the imagined heroes of the American Dream. With marriage disappearing, that dream is ending.”
Damn glad I’m old.
They’re all getting those green jobs!/sarc
The Church had incredible prescience in the matter of oral birth control.
What benefit do I have if I have three or four kids, get married and stay married?
At the end of the day, if I have no children I might pay a little more in taxes, but nothing that even nearly approaches the real cost of having them. Yet when I'm older I will reap all the benefits from those children even if I choose to have none, which would not have been the case 150 years ago, before we became so advanced, progressive, cultured and with a social/safety net.
If I gave you a trillion dollars and it were all in a huge pile but you were the only person left alive on this planet, what would that money do for you other than warm you as you burn it? Money is nothing more than an abstract concept of human capital/labor/creativity. It always has been and it will always be that the young feed the old. In our system today those that choose to have no children and live hedonistic into the day can live out their wildest fantasies, and in the end those with kids who self sacrificed will have their kids pay for the savage in his old age.
We have created a system that punishes having children. That punishes being married in its tax code. That gives the institution of marriage no status or privilege legally other than having a spouse being able to make a claim against one for alimony in case of a divorce. Try getting information on your married spouse when the doctor’s office calls that you wish to relay. Not even the most basic powers are assumed present when married; no you need to get a power of attorney for that. Divorce by the way is very easy and near consequence free……..
Most people will follow the path of least resistance and are outright hedonists (maximize pleasure). We have de-incentivized and devalued marriage in every respect. In the arts and entertainment, legally where it brings nothing other than risk if separated, in costs were the tax code essentially punishes people, granting anyone essentially the same privileges and perks of being married (i.e. gays), where those with kids won't even be the ones reaping the benefits of those kids when they are old and their kids are providing to sustain the system but those who chose to not have kids will still benefit...........
What do people expect? Seriously!
This can’t be right.
I have it on the authority of President Barack Hussein Obama that history is marching relentlessly forward, we are making progress, and life is constantly getting better.
After marrying my ex I was surprised to discover how many of her friends were divorced with children.
It seemed to be a pattern. You get married, have a kid or kids, and then you get divorced. That’s the program.
When I meet a new woman at work or at a party etc, she is just as likely to be divorced as married. Its like 50/50.
Divorce is so easy and common these days, there is no stigma anymore, it is like breaking up with a boyfriend.
As soon as there is a problem of any kind or someone gets “the grass is greener” complex, just get divorced. Hey, Why not?
Tell it to the Iraqis. Tell that to Al Qaeda. Tell that to the Taliban. Tell it to Somalians.
Sure. The greatest military in history has been training how to deal with "armed-to-the-teeth, poor, demoralized populations with rage for their politicians" for 20 years now, and they've learned a trick or two...
Think they won't "just follow orders" and fire on "bitter clingers" here?
How about maybe when a DADT progressive senior officer is looking over the Predator airman's shoulder???
Shooting a man one-on-one after breaking down his door is one thing. Pushing a button on a "domestic terrorist" blip on his screen?
Guess which class Obama and his Marxist buddies are in .
I would say the useful-idiot class. Look at Europe: how many taxpayers are storming the streets, angrily (and sometime violently) making their displeasure about high taxes known?
None of them. Instead, the anger's coming from thwarted entitlement mentalities angry about their subventions being cut.
I can't figure out why, but it's the takers who are more aggressive than the makers. Impinging on so-called "positive rights" tends to cause riots; impinging on so-called "negative rights" (i.e., liberty) produces peaceful protests at most.
Europe and the U.S. are fortunate that Communism has been generally discredited, because the above-noted disparate reaction is a revolutionary Communist's dream - especially given the U.S. government fingers the likes of you guys as the 'domestic terrorists'.
One side note: Atlas Shrugged, despite its sparks, is oddly quietist with respect to politics. Its underlying political message is: "If you're good, you can only win by escaping." Despite this theme being profoundly anti-Nietzschean - who else but a slave wins by escaping? - Rand is still called Nietzschean. Go figger.
Red, I have to agree with most of your conclusions. However, I’d like to add another reason for the decline of marriage in the middle class. It seems to me that a large portion of blame belongs in the pulpit (if they are used anymore) and the failure of today’s ministers to lead their flocks and hold them morally accountable. Pastors today are shadows compared to the leading lights of Christian preachers years ago. They preached the Word, and made sure that their congregations knew what God asked of them. Most of today’s churches are more concerned with their bottom lines and how contemporary their music is. For what it’s worth...
What Good Can a Handgun Do Against An Army?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/2312894/posts
Who designed and put into law the family court system? Men.
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.