Marriage Rates Dropping in the U.S.

I have not written a blog post for a long time; but today’s Wall Street Journal contains an article titled Marriage Is Becoming More Like a Luxury Good in U.S. I just could not resist writing one more blog about this subject.

The first sentence of the article reads, “Middle-class Americans are forsaking marriage amid financial insecurity, effectively making the institution more of a luxury good enjoyed by prosperous Americans.”

The article goes on to say, “Affluent Americans who marry are more likely to pool six-figure incomes, buy homes, and watch their assets grow. Among people aged 25 to 34, the median wealth of married couples is four times that of couples who live together but aren’t married.”

Even though many people on the lower levels of income are not marrying, most high school seniors in the U.S. still say that they expect to marry. Three quarters of them have claimed that ambition since 1976. Notwithstanding that fact, by the time a few years elapse, their attitudes seem to change; and they begin to feel that they must first start careers or land secure jobs and have some money in their pockets. Then, some of them decide to marry; but many maintain that marriage holds a lesser draw on their goals.

Half of middle earners were married in 2018, a drop of 16% since 1980. In the highest earners in the U.S. 60% were married, but even in that income level, the marriage rate had dropped 4% since 1980.

One may wonder why that drop in marriage rate has occurred. One reason is that many young people have seen their parents divorcing at an alarming rate; and they have become cynical about the prospect of establishing a stable home. Another reason is that women without a college degree have closed the earnings gap with their male peers even faster than women with higher levels of education.  That earnings shift has reduced the economic motivation for these women to marry. I think that another pertinent reason for the drop in the marriage rate is the falling away from meaningful religious experience. Young people are just not going to church and experience the love and the grace of Christ in their lives. For that reason, I believe they do not feel the necessity of marriage in compliance with the church’s traditional teachings.

Government regulations are not helping the situation, either. Nancy and I have a housekeeper who is in her 50’s. Her husband died, and she began drawing Social Security benefits from his Social Security income. Now she is living with a man she would like to marry, but if she marries him, her income will drop by $1000+. That is a strong incentive for her to remain unmarried! Housekeepers don’t make much money.

All the above being said, I think that Americans who shun marriage should be aware of biblical admonitions warning against adultery. “The wages of sin is death.” That means that despite the apparent benefits of living together without marriage, eternal punishments for that kind of behavior will  hurt far more than the “rewards” of living in an adulterous relationship will ever counter.