Live data from Hacker News

Children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

npr.org

41–50 of 431 posts

Re: Children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

#41

America is moving the other way because all the wealth and power has been sucked up by the 0.1% and a large majority are too tired, stressed, and poor. Everything stems from this. Too much wealth tied up in the health insurance scam to switch to single payer, so people stay bound to their employment, and they can't afford time off or visits to the doctor because nothing is completely covered anymore. Too much wealth…

This argument is non sequitor. If wealth inequality was the problem, couples would be forced by economics to work together to bring in more together than they could separately and to share resources like housing to reduce costs.

Re: Children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

#42
post #9
post #2

Is it that marriage itself is beneficial or that people capable of maintaining a relationship make better parents? Divorce is significantly more common for bipolar, paranoid, and schizophrenic people for example. So I think we need to look at widows or something to control for those kinds of issues.

I was wondering about that, too. The data are very clear: if you grow up with married parents, you will do better. But, should everyone be rushing off to get married, or is marriage selective for people who will do better? Or is it partly selective, and also partly forcing yourself to work through a marriage makes you a better person?

Its effects may be more visible, because in previous iterations society condemned children out of wedlock so data on it was not as reliable. Naturally, potential solutions would result in rather unwelcome dystopias that could be encapsulates in a phrase 'oi you got loicense for those kids?'

Re: Children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

#43

America is moving the other way because all the wealth and power has been sucked up by the 0.1% and a large majority are too tired, stressed, and poor. Everything stems from this. Too much wealth tied up in the health insurance scam to switch to single payer, so people stay bound to their employment, and they can't afford time off or visits to the doctor because nothing is completely covered anymore. Too much wealth…

I think the blame can be squarely placed on the cost of housing.

Re: Children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

#44
post #24

America is moving the other way because all the wealth and power has been sucked up by the 0.1% and a large majority are too tired, stressed, and poor. Everything stems from this. Too much wealth tied up in the health insurance scam to switch to single payer, so people stay bound to their employment, and they can't afford time off or visits to the doctor because nothing is completely covered anymore. Too much wealth…

I find it ridiculous that healthcare is the greatest driver of cost of living but no one does anything about it. Doctors and nurses are overworked too. It’s the biggest scam going right now and all the politicians are in on it.

You can place the blame for both things on the federal government.

1. Obamacare was promised to save families $2500 per year. Instead healthcare costs have predictably nearly doubled.

2. A few decades ago the government actively discouraged medical schools from enrolling enough would-be doctors because they had a misguided belief that the country would have too many.

Re: Children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

#45

"Kearney says she wants to grab the attention of both conservatives who say they care about children's well-being and progressives reluctant to talk about family structures, because the link between single parenting, inequality and mobility in America is too strong to deny." She doesn't need to grab the attention of conservatives because her findings already support their pre-existing beliefs, like it says earlier in…

> She doesn't need to grab the attention of conservatives because her findings already support their pre-existing beliefs

Not quite, because the other solution to the problem is giving people access to sexual education and birth control so that they can decide to have children only after they find someone they're willing to marry, which are so famously contrary to conservative beliefs that they've based 40 years of political campaigning around their opposition.

Re: Children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

#46
post #2

Is it that marriage itself is beneficial or that people capable of maintaining a relationship make better parents? Divorce is significantly more common for bipolar, paranoid, and schizophrenic people for example. So I think we need to look at widows or something to control for those kinds of issues.

Why not both?

All people, kids and adults, have a finite level of emotional and mental energy that they have to “dispense” in everyday life. If you are a couple that’s dealing with marital strife, this is emotional overhead that gets diverted to dealing with that instead of your kids.

Same goes for kids. A child that’s struggling to comprehend why parents decided to leave each other will be using that emotional energy to process it instead of focusing on personal growth.

This is not taking into account the divorce process is costly, with money diverted to lawyers, instead of being pooled and applied to improve family life.

Also, persons who divorce early in a relationship may not have taken the time to understand compatibility with each other, may be emotionally immature and impulsive. The lack of insight might be something that perpetuates into other aspects of their life.

There are, obviously, relationship patterns where it takes a long time for one partner to realize the other one has gradually become more and more abusive and controlling, either because they have low self-confidence or self-esteem. This somewhat tracks the concept of emotional maturity, but this is difficult to talk about as this form of framing puts the blame onto the abused partner.

Re: Children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

#47
The article really doesn’t answer that clickbait headline, but it seems analogous to “Why Jews earn so many PhDs”. It’s mostly culture, which is a tangled and recursive process that can’t be deconstructed into some government funded social programs.

Re: Children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

#48
post #2

Is it that marriage itself is beneficial or that people capable of maintaining a relationship make better parents? Divorce is significantly more common for bipolar, paranoid, and schizophrenic people for example. So I think we need to look at widows or something to control for those kinds of issues.

On a slightly related note, why is it that one gets lynched on twitter nowadays any time one brings up that "correlation doesn't imply causation"?

Are you sure there is a causative relation between bringing it up and getting eviscerated?

Perhaps a third process correlates them.

Re: Children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

#49

America is moving the other way because all the wealth and power has been sucked up by the 0.1% and a large majority are too tired, stressed, and poor. Everything stems from this. Too much wealth tied up in the health insurance scam to switch to single payer, so people stay bound to their employment, and they can't afford time off or visits to the doctor because nothing is completely covered anymore. Too much wealth…

Everything does not stem from wealth inequality. Almost-everything wrong in US culture stems from selfishness. Which would include things you talked about. But it also includes people making selfish choices that bring about the end of their marriages (affairs, career, addictions).

? So the wealth inequality right?

How do you think the wealthy got wealthy without selfishness?

You seem to be implying that it isn't the inequality, but that all those poor people should stop being selfish.

If only those poor people would stop being selfish, the wealth inequality wouldn't be a problem.

LOL.

Re: Children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way

#50
post #39
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t survive or support a family with a single income these days.. It’s required for both partners to work.

Been doing it for more than 15 years. Where there is a will, there is a way.

You certainly can, but going by the numbers most people can’t.
Post reply on HN