Nothing better than a father and mother in a stable, loving relationship for a child. Yes, let’s encourage this.
Encourage how?
Force unhappy couples together? You think that is good for the children?!
Two-parent households should be a policy goal
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Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#42Nothing better than a father and mother in a stable, loving relationship for a child. Yes, let’s encourage this.
How exactly is that better the two mothers? Do you have evidence?
I would be very surprised if GP thought that only father/mother combos are the best and instead was just agreeing with TFA.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#43I don't think that's been sociologically plausible for many decades. Some things are easy to tear down and nearly impossible to build back up. In some circles, the mere suggestion that this should be a policy goal is insulting, as it hints that single-parent homes are inferior. Our government isn't really allowed to prefer one over the other, even if it would result in less misery. Furthermore, the tools that governm…
>it hints that single-parent homes are inferior.
Yeah they are, expecially for the average childrens in average single household (struggling single-mothers). The idea that being a single mother is heroic is dumb and a disservice for everybody, expecially the children involved. At best single-parents are Martyrs. Obviously there are the exceptions but data shows that single-parent households are extremily more likely to live in poverty or near poverty.
I believe that children in struggling (financially & other) households should be given in temporary adopotion into stable families (with a set of incentives or child support checks) till one of the original parent find enough stability to fully take care of them. "It takes a village to grow a kid 2.0" approach
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the idea is that as some men have become less reliable as financial providers for their family, the value proposition of marriage between a man and a woman has fallen. > Multiple studies document a causal link between the economic struggles of men and the growth in single-mother families. > To give disadvantaged children better futures, policy makers should promote widespread employment and economic security among…
Perhaps as women have gained more financial independence they no longer need to adopt a submissive attitude towards men to survive?
Equating a marriage with "submission" is the first thing that needs to die if we're going to create more two-parent households.
It is simply no longer the case.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#45The 1970s called; they'd like their arguments back! Arguing that children with married parents fare better, thus promoting two-parent families, is akin to suggesting that since blue cars have fewer accidents, everyone should drive a blue car. Pressuring dissatisfied couples to stay together or marry benefits no one. The article fails to provide actionable recommendations on promoting marriage.
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 by the underclasses across many demographics now. Where as the poor once had very strong families (because they needed each other) that role has been taken up by the state turning mothers into reliable clients and fathers into unaccountable wastes.
As it turns out, The Moynihan Report [1] was 100% accurate and its predictions on where things were going to head have come true.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Negro_Family:_The_Case_For...
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#46The problem with two-parent is you're a single misstep away from one-parent. Multi-generational and communal households would be more resilient, and easier to accommodate via tax incentives and housing policy.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#47The 1970s called; they'd like their arguments back! Arguing that children with married parents fare better, thus promoting two-parent families, is akin to suggesting that since blue cars have fewer accidents, everyone should drive a blue car. Pressuring dissatisfied couples to stay together or marry benefits no one. The article fails to provide actionable recommendations on promoting marriage.
Western society peaked in the 80s so maybe we should listen to some of the arguments from back then.
Things may look like they were working better in hindsight, but we just hadn't started choking to death on all of the unchecked externalities yet.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#48Serious 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
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Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#49There was an excellent NYT article about this as well: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/13/opinion/single-parent-pov... > We are often reluctant to acknowledge one of the significant drivers of child poverty — the widespread breakdown of family — for fear that to do so would be patronizing or racist.
If we are concerned about poverty, maybe we could just give them money? I understand the fairly small child tax credit had a huge positive impact on child poverty.
Re: Two-parent households should be a policy goal
#50Can't read the article even with archive.ph, but do they have an analysis of why relationships break down?
Changing to Google DNS (8.8.8.8) fixes the problem.
(Removed: "Cloudflare DNS blocks archive.ph.")
Edit: Cloudflare clarifies below.