The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Is Marriage Becoming ‘Obsolete’? Women, Children, Minorities Hardest Hit

Posted on | November 18, 2010 | 15 Comments

Forty percent of respondents to a Pew Center survey say that marriage is “obsolete.” Coincidentally — or perhaps not so coincidentally — 40% of U.S. births are to unwed mothers, as Jennifer Marshall of the Heritage Foundation noted in May:

Hardly anyone noticed this month when new data showed 40 percent of all births are to unmarried mothers. . . .
About two-thirds of poor children live in single-parent homes. Government spends $300 billion annually to assist low-income single parents.
But if poor single mothers married the fathers of their children, nearly two-thirds could escape poverty immediately. . . .
Yet discussions of poverty rarely address the collapse of marriage.

Strangely enough, although spending on entitlement programs contributes enormously to the ballooning federal deficit, some conservatives have called for a “truce” on social issues, preferring instead to focus on fiscal issues. Yet, as we see with the decline of marriage, many times social issues have a fiscal impact.

And what about marriage being “obsolete”? Tell it to Kim Kardashian who — after a series of “relationships” — finds herself 30 and unmarried, while both of her sisters are already married moms:

“Is it weird that I’m now the single one? It’s definitely a change for me,” she admits. “I have always been the one in a relationship. I like that role, I want that best friend partnership.”

Perhaps someone should share with Kim Kardashian that old-fashioned advice about “free milk and a cow.”

Girls who are willing to accept transient “relationships” in the thought that this is an acceptable substitute for real commitment — and by “commitment” I mean, ‘Til Death Do Us Part — are bargaining from a position of weakness.

Don’t mess around with guys just for the sake of being able to say you’ve got a boyfriend. You’re better off being alone than to let yourself be played like a chump.

Don’t let a guy string you along and waste your time. Tell him to get serious or get lost. Lots of guys will drift along in a “relationship” while keeping an eye out for their next girlfriend. If he doesn’t love you enough to ask you to marry him, he’s going to dump you sooner or later, honey. Save yourself the heartache.

If it can happen to Kim Kardashian, girls, it can happen to you: Used and discarded by a series of boyfriends, until one day you wake up at 30 and notice that guys aren’t flocking around like they were when you were 20 and thought you had all the time in the world.

End of fatherly lecture.

MSNBC’s Brian Alexander asks a relevant question: If marriage is “obsolete,” why is everybody so excited that Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting married?

Are fairy-tale happy endings only for royalty nowadays?

Category: Celebrities, Marriage, Sex

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