Cohen: How to Live in a World Where Marriage Is in Decline
In a recent post on The Atlantic, sociologist Dr. Philip Cohen of the University of Maryland's Population Research Center argued that with marriage rates on a steady decline, public policy should catch up with the reality that fewer and fewer children are being raised in homes with two married parents. Since 1980, for almost every state in every decade the percentage of women who are married has fallen. The decline of marriage is nearly universal: 87% of the world’s population lives in countries with marriage rates that have fallen since the 1980s.
Lawmakers have repeatedly attempted to use social welfare policy to create financial incentives for marriage, but without notable success. Marriage rates will most likely continue to taper over the coming decades, resulting in more children growing up without the financial benefits that the social welfare system provides to married parents. Dr. Cohen believes that it is time to abandon policies that attempt to steer people into marriage through financial incentives. He writes, “Rather than try to redirect the ship of marriage, we have to do what we already know we have to do: reduce the disadvantages accruing to those who aren’t married—or whose parents aren’t married.”