Earlier quoted context omitted.
Western society peaked in the 80s so maybe we should listen to some of the arguments from back then.
"Western society peaked in the 80s" By what metric?
By the metric of best new-wave hair, for sure.
Two-parent households should be a policy goal
181–190 of 291 posts
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Forcing unhappy people to stay together or get married doesn't help anyone." I largely agree, but the idea of promoting two parent households isn't antithetical to your statement. You could have programs that are meant to ensure that couples get married for the right reasons, with the right skills, etc. It's likely a marriage prep/ed course would result in fewer divorces, just as drivers ed results in better drivers…
> You could have programs that are meant to ensure that couples get married Is marriage required or just a two parent household ?
Just the two parent household. It seems that many of the one parent households are a product of divorce though. Reducing divorce could help address that subset.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being single parent can also file for the deduction. Receiving supposal and child support after tax also encourages divorce, which also encourages the benefiting party not to go to work or do works that doesn't pay taxes. I'd say the current policy is more encouraging of divorce than two-parent household.
Spousal support is an archaic holdover that doesn’t belong anymore and child support should not be a thing offered in at fault divorces. For the latter I’m not sure how you can go about implementing that ethically though. If the dad cheated, fine, he should pay child support. If the mom cheats, maybe the state can subsidize daycare while the mom is forced to work. Otherwise there are no consequences for the mom who c…
Not sure why you are getting downvoted. Draconian laws tilting in favor of women definitely contribute to reluctance of men to get married or to have kids.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
The state of nature exists only as an idea. Primitive peoples are just as alienated from their supposed state of nature as we are.
That’s a hard argument to make if completely alienated populations, irrespective of geographical location, coalesce around the same idea.
I don't think that's the case. And I don't think you're an anthropologist or anything. It's just a convenient narrative when it fits into your own view. Polyandry was and is widespread in some cultures. I wonder if you would accept that as a state of nature.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
> A multi generational household occurs naturally when grandma and grandpa had a stable two parent households and now mom and dad do too. More importantly, young people need a reason not to move hundreds or thousands of miles away from their stable household. Investing in community resources, local economies, and infrastructure that promotes health and opportunity are all necessary.
WFH solves this too. RTO policies are anti-family. Hell, unchecked corporate work culture is part of why Japan and Korea's birth rates are so low. Can't be out having babies if you're at the office at all hours.
I think WFH-RTO dimension is orthogonal to unchecked corporate culture. You can have a great work-life balance with RTO (I saw it at Google first-hand in 2010's) and you can have a shitty dawn-to-dusk grinder with WFH (saw it many times since Covid.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
You need to go back a bit further than that. By the 1970s single motherhood was already being incentivized through policy. Once initially for rare hard luck cases, policy went from supporting single mothers to essentially encouraging it. Stigma around it became celebration of it even being considered liberation by many leftist groups. And this is why we have seen such a spread in this type of behavior being taken up…
This is called out as concretely happening in the "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth" documentary. > Welfare policies made things worse by denying benefits to families with adult males in residence. Fathers and husbands had to leave — or hide in the closet when social workers came to check. (quoted from a review [1]) [1] https://www.npr.org/2012/01/19/145343942/in-st-louis-an-urba...
The path to hell is paved with good intentions.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Affordable high quality child care
That’s a red herring. A person overlooking 5-15 kids is never going to be able to offer the care a one on one relationship with a mother can. Maybe a nanny might be an analogous alternative but the state will never be able to pay for that.
> A person overlooking 5-15 kids is never going to be able to offer the care a one on one relationship with a mother can.
Some mothers have 5-15 kids!
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#188Serious question: why not three parent? Does every stable relationship involve sexual aspects? Seems like an article stating an obvious fact but missing the bigger picture
> Does every stable relationship involve sexual aspects?
Not generally. But creating a child necessarily involves creating a stable biological relationship primarily with two other people.
Most people across history think the biological circumstances that bring us into the world are spiritually important and making the triangle between mother-father-child healthy is good for children.
For better or worse, people care their genetic material. We can either choose to create a society that makes the best of this, or we can try to suppress it and convince people that it doesn't matter.
And yes I know that surrogacy exists. But that's a side argument that opens up a lot more questions and I don't think it really changes the fundamentals.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#189Serious question: why not three parent? Does every stable relationship involve sexual aspects? Seems like an article stating an obvious fact but missing the bigger picture
Parenthood usually does have some sexual aspects.
Multigenerational households are another popular option to deal with economic challenges.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you disagree with that, and disagree with the initial assumptions, don't you think it would be easiest to post evidence of your own rather than demanding evidence from those you disagree with? Or do you refuse to post your evidence until other people post theirs, like some kind of standoff?
IMO, the burden for strong evidence is on the people trying to interfere in my private affairs.
No one is trying to interfere in your private affairs in this conversation.
You have definitely read something into it that was not actually stated