Study: Divorce, unwed parenting costs billions

Submitted by anthony on Tue, 2008-04-15 20:32

Story here. Excerpt:

'Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year, according to a study commissioned by four groups advocating more government action to bolster marriages.

Sponsors say the study is the first of its kind and hope it will prompt lawmakers to invest more money in programs aimed at strengthening marriages. Two experts not connected to the study said such programs are of dubious merit and suggested that other investments -- notably job creation -- would be more effective in aiding all types of needy families.

"We're now nearing 40 percent of kids in America born out of wedlock," she said. "I can't fathom that those marriage programs, even with increased investment, are going to reduce that."

Blankenhorn said it was "fair criticism" to note that the study made multiple references to marriage-strengthening programs while not proposing other strategies for reducing the cost of family fragmentation.'

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Downfall of a decent clan: What the Shannon family tree reveals about the social breakdown of Britain

"This is not so much a family tree as a genealogical bramble. The traditional neat branches, shaped by the age-old certainties of birth, death and the institution of marriage, have grown wild.

What you see here is a tragic map of social breakdown: families who once stood on their own feet being replaced by single parenthood, multiple partners, reliance on State benefits and, perhaps inevitably, children being looked after by the local authority."

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Submitted by mcc99 on Wed, 2008-04-16 15:52

By default, a marriage should have a prenup stating what each person is bringing into the marriage (unless overridden by a process identical to getting a prenup today). A rich person wouldn't have the burden of protecting their assets while it's up to the lesser one to initiate the fact that he or she is a potential gold-digger.

This would do wonders to the divorce rate (what gold-digger would get married when they know they aren't getting millions in return?)

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Submitted by blaze4metal on Wed, 2008-04-16 16:47

someone in the msm will actually stumble across the idea that maybe the family is being destroyed because the system needs divorce and welfare to operate. cut divorce rates and you will cripple the economy.

75% of lawyers will need to find real work. which means sueing everybody all the time. somebody will pay them one way or another.

less cops chasing men to fund the CS system will mean endless raids on suspected bad men's homes, more laws so more bad men can be arrested, and so forth so the system can expand that way to compensate.

less men on the DBD roles so judges will need to find "other" bad men.

and that doesn't even take into account the support people. less janitors to clean up the prisons, less prison guards, less cooks and so forth. lower divorce rates will be devastating on so many levels.

and that "marriage strengthening" crap - sounds like more of the same excessive spending on endless tax based programs to make the whole thing even worse.

and don't even get me started on the buisinesses that would fold w/o the welfare system, and first among them being the state Lottery and the casinos.

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Submitted by daveinga on Thu, 2008-04-17 03:08