Get married before having children, and other recipes for reducing poverty

Family is a fundamental aspect of civil society. The institution of
family
furthers character and ethical values. Human beings model behavior, and children model the behavior of their parents. Strong families are at the core of strong communities.

Unfortunately, in the United States, the institution of family is in a state of crisis. According to the Census Bureau, in 1950,
78%
of households were made up of married couples. By 2021, the percentage of adults living with a spouse had decreased to
50%
. For decades, the percentage of children living with a single parent has been increasing. The U.S. has the world’s highest rate of children living in a single-parent household,
three times
the world average.

Social attitudes toward sex outside of marriage, the institution of marriage, and divorce have become more liberal. But recent research concludes that the rise of the welfare state has contributed to the decline of marriage and an associated increase in fertility outside of marriage. A report published in the National Library of Medicine
says
that “the majority of the newer studies show that welfare has a significantly negative effect on marriage or a positive effect on fertility.” The new studies confirm Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s 1965 assertion that the War on Poverty would contribute to the decline of marriage and the rise of out-of-wedlock births among black Americans.

Since 1965, the decline of marriage and the rise of out-of-wedlock births has accelerated at an alarming rate. Consider some
statistics
from the Center for Equal Opportunity. In 1940 in the U.S., 2% of white births were born outside of wedlock. In 1963 it was 3%. But the percentage of out-of-wedlock births for blacks jumped from 17% in 1940 to 24% in 1963. Today, the disintegration of family is even more stark. For blacks, the rate of out-of-wedlock births is 69.4%; for Hispanics, 51.8%; for whites, 28.2%; and for Asian Americans, 11.7%.

Today, the institution of marriage is not embraced within the culture of lower-income families, black or white. Children born out of wedlock and raised by one parent or another relative will model that behavior when they are adults. In addition, the high school
dropout rate
for children born out of wedlock speaks for itself. A negative feedback loop is then created.

One solution to this catastrophe affecting the nation is to teach the success sequence. The data say that millennials who graduate from high school, get a job, get married, and only then have children will escape poverty, with
97%
of those who do so not ending up poor. 

Some scholars assert that better schools can mitigate the effects of the anti-marriage culture and embrace of out-of-wedlock births. That assertion is false. Studies show
demonstrably
that the structure of the family is the most important factor in educational and economic success. Schooling has only a limited impact on later life success. In addition, groundbreaking
research
by professor James Heckman, a Nobel laureate in economics, shows that large income transfers and well-funded schools have little effect on economic mobility. Children from higher socioeconomic income levels continue to outperform children from lower socioeconomic levels. The family structure matters. Heckman also postulates that high taxes and generous income transfers discourage hard work. Why strive when the benefits of striving are taxed away?

Top line: the expansive welfare
state perpetuates poverty
and limits economic and social mobility. 

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James Rogan is a former U.S. foreign service officer who later worked in finance and law for 30 years. He writes 
a daily note
 on finance and the economy, politics, sociology, and criminal justice.