BodiSatva

The New York Times, which based its report on an analysis of census results, said 51 percent of women in 2005 reported living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.

"Coupled with the fact that in 2005 married couples became a minority of all American households for the first time, the trend could ultimately shape social and workplace policies, including the ways government and employers distribute benefits," the newspaper said.

It said that several factors are behind the shift including women marrying at a later age and living with partners for more often and for longer periods. Women are also living longer as widows and once divorced, often opt to stay single, the report said.

Majority of US women living without spouse - Yahoo! News

What is this invisible factor that is leading us down a path of single people, single mothers (voluntary ones at least), dead-beat fathers, etc.? What is it? Why are we seeing less married people and broken or disjointed families more and more?

Yes, this is an extension of the last thread, so for all of you that can't fathom reality to save your life, this should be fun.

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saggyjones

I think that the traditional values of the woman being the housewife and the man being the money maker are breaking down. In my opinion this is mainly due to more women having jobs and waiting to marry. Now that they are almost expected to go out and get jobs they can support themselves and therefore don't have to marry.

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CaptainCourtesy

This may be an extremely preemptive strike, but remembering what happened to the last thread around this topic, let's all be civil.

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Johnny_Utah

I hear you. We should all be civil and do nothing that might cause tempers to flare...

I am not even sure if any of those Anti-Family Anti-Man Women will show up to spout their Hateful Propoganda!

Oooops...

So what, if any, is the solution? Does there need to be one? Western Society will be bred out, just look at the population trends around the world...

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BodiSatva

I know. IT is interesting to see the trends. Europe will become a suburb of the ME soon.

I am all for Progressive Ideas, my wife started her own business before we met and we run that now...among other things, but once we started having kids, that was her focus. Being a mom. The business slowed down and she stays at home by her own choice, and I think that is best for the family and the kids.

Many of her friends hire nannies or use day care and they are always out and about having coffee with friends or at yoga while we are always with our kids. Though they are with a husband or partner, they are on-call moms at best. It sucks.

Anyway, this thread will die, just because people hate family structure. This proves my point...a few thoughtful responses, but mostly negative and selfish ones from last time...people just don't care about anything other than themselves in Western Society...mainly America.

America is dying, and it makes me sad. Seriously.

rathi

Several factors are at work in this situation. The first is just the general lifespan of Americans. The average life expectancy has skyrocketed recently. Social security was not an issue because not that many people lived passed 65 back in the day. Most people never reached 50 year anniversaries. "Till death do you part" was a lot shorter than it is today. Marriages lasting a lifetime are much harder when that lifetime is so much longer. The next issue was women gaining rights and employment opportunities. 60% of people in college today are women. Yet women are often forced to either choose between having kids or a career. Therefore many women don't end up married to keep their careers. Finally, social attitudes towards marriage have changed. Divorce no longer carries the huge stigma it used to. People tend to date for longer periods of time and "test the waters" before getting married. Some people don't even consider the legal hoops of jumping through marriage to be worth it. Many people have long term relationships that are never legally considered marriages.

Frankly, I'm not terribly worried about less people getting married. Marriage is a legal and social construct that has no inherent goodness and if society decides to discard it, so be it. I think that changing the focus of a domestic partnership to raising kids rather than some lifetime commitment that won't last a lifetime would prove more beneficial.

However, I am worried about family dynamics. Ensuring that kids are raised in homes with supportive parents and financial security is important to society as a whole. I'd suggest the we move towards a lot more part time jobs. This would allow both parents to work and raise kids. Kids would get attention from both parents and financial issues would be more stable because of 2 sources of income.

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jujuman13

Rathi, you have essentially hit the nail right on the head, an excellent post.

Morrow

There are a lot of problems with your post, but I’m going to ignore most of them.

Marriage is has been the norm in western culture for sometime. A deviation from that does not constitute something bad in and of itself, it depends on the implementation. Also, social transition means that people have to find new ways to cope, which they are and will, this can cause some minor problems to be exacerbated.

The ‘change’ in marriage isn’t the symptom of a problem. It is a reflection of the way in which our society is ordered. At one point marriage, was a formalized method of something that was naturally occurring, lifelong cohabitation. The reason that we are seeing less marriage is that the constraints which cause lifelong cohabitation are dissolving, and new constraints are being added. The decline is marriage is individual ADAPTATION to the new factors in society.

I will not speculate on all of these causes, but I believe that economics is clearly a related factor. Our current market and economy allows people to be more self reliant than in previous generations, and means that people don’t have to stay in dissatisfying relationships, or can more on to new ones. It also means that they can raise children by themselves. Both people in a relationship now have careers, and people are no longer economically limited to the extent that one person has to sacrifice that career.

Society is an extension of human psychology, and therefore it will always be forced to adapt to the changes in the physical world, whatever they may be.

SixStringHero

I may be going out on a limb here, but my guess is that the 50% and growing divorce rate is a good deterence from getting married early these days.

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Johnny_Utah

Dont take the cowardly way out bro. Gonna dish it out, then back it up or keep it shut

I would like to see you point out a "lot" of problems with a post that asks a few questions about a REAL ISSUE.

Yes yes yes, this is all UNDERSTOOD already.

The question is WHY? Why are people doing this? Of course it is adaptation due to progressive ideas. But why are people doing this? What about having children and raising them within the confines of a STRUCTURED ENVIRONMENT (which is what children desire and NEED)?

A woman would rather get her career going, wait until she is 35 to have a baby, when the rate of Birth Defects rises dramatically, geta C-Section, hire a nanny or put them in day care so that she can go to yoga, etc. What the hell is wrong with the better educated Liberals that do this.

A man would rather do what? Party? Get laid? Hang out playing video games? Work on their careers? What is it? Wait wait wait and marry a younger woman when you are 40 and be 60 when your kids graduate high school, unable to play ball because you are almost old enough to retire.

Family Values is easy to attack when it messes up people's selfish desires. It is easy to overlook what is best for the kids.

This isn't psychological Darwinism. This is not a mandated change for survival. This is seflish people indulging themselves at the cost of a potential societal breakdown.

There you go. Self reliant is a PC way to say Selfish.

And now you justify it. People no longer have to sacrafice their CAREER? Instead they sacrafice their family and children.

why do they both have careers? There is no need. We create the world that we live in. People can do without many things.

To many people spend money that they dont have
To buy things that they dont want
to impress people that they dont like.

Why dont people understand who they are and that marraige is not a fairy tale. That people have issues. That they have issues. That it takes work. Too many people want the package and wont put in the work. They bail like chickens and whine and bitch about society. They justify actions of incompetent people that play the PC game. It is cyclical.

Most of the issues are due to Liberals and Liberal Policies. Not all are bad, by any means, but by not addressing the REAL issues, you are just playing the PC game and not really saying anything.