The Cost of Dumping Traditional Values? Generations of Dependence on Government
At the Wall Street Journal, Professors Cherlin and Wilcox press down firmly on an uncomfortable truth. "The grim employment picture" facing the children of the baby boomers, they write, "is familiar, but what's less widely known is that they are losing not only jobs but also their connections to basic social institutions such as marriage and religion. They're becoming socially disengaged, floating away from the college-educated middle class."
These working-class couples still value marriage highly. But they don't think they have what it takes to make a marriage work. Across all social classes, in fact, Americans now believe that a couple isn't ready to marry until they can count on a steady income. That's an increasingly high bar for the younger working class. As a result, cohabitation is emerging as the relationship of choice for young adults who have some earnings but not enough steady work to reach the marriage bar.
Cherlin and Wilcox drive home the point that marriage, like religious faith, has traditionally offered working-class Americans a sort of personal and cultural backstop in difficult economic times. But now, in a culture where economic success is increasingly viewed across the board as a precondition of marriage, and church as a place to confirm one's social respectability, that backstop is collapsing. Some might argue that this isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, it's good marriages we want, not mere marriages, right? And who are a couple of professors to say who should and who shouldn't be going to church?
But here's the thing: "the working class," write Cherlin and Wilcox, "is not a cultural vanguard confidently leading the way toward a postmodern lifestyle." That's true but it's also misleading. It's not as if the "postmodern lifestyle" is simply a matter of achieving the right emotional attitude or intellectual enlightenment. Often, the serially monogamous lives of upwardly mobile Americans with no use for religious faith are incredibly costly, both psychologically and financially. Think of the now-stereotypical expenses. Mood regulating prescription drugs. Attorneys' fees. Child support. Day care. Therapy. A life in with neither marriage nor faith at its foundations can be very expensive. And for a growing number of Americans, only the government can foot the bill.
Cherlin and Wilcox are worried that the rising generations' "social disengagement" will "leave them vulnerable to political appeals based on anger and fear," while "their multiple cohabiting unions and marriages" will "prevent their children from developing a sense of attachment to others" -- worthy concerns, but incomplete, without a recognition that the apparent freedom of upper-class Americans to abandon traditional cultural institutions masks a deep dependency for those who would follow suit but don't have money to burn. It's a dependency on government as lawyer, doctor, psychiatrist, and, finally, absentee parent.
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Aug '10
Re: The Cost of Dumping Traditional Values? Generations of Dependence on Government
All true, and a bad outcome is certainly possible. On the other hand, just as stars galaxies are born of chaos, violence, and the action of black holes trying to suck the life out of the universe; the next generation may see the light, rediscover American history, and rebel against Statist tyranny.
Jul '10
Re: The Cost of Dumping Traditional Values? Generations of Dependence on Government
One thing left out of the article was the definition of "working class." Is my electrician, who makes over $100,000 a year working class but the college educated librarian, at $60,000.00 a year, say, middle class? Is it income or education that distinguishes the group the author discuss? Or are they talking about unskilled workers unable to fit into the economy who may profit from more trade schools, etc.?
Jun '10
Re: The Cost of Dumping Traditional Values? Generations of Dependence on Government
If you expect your marriage to be built on "the rock" of the US economy, that's a big mistake. There's something much more permanent and reliable to build it on. You just have to believe that something exists.
May '10
Re: The Cost of Dumping Traditional Values? Generations of Dependence on Government
I repeat- once again, Michael Barone addresses this. We see more of the pathologies in our 24 hour news culture and media availability, but the Bowery drunks were 1915; our history is rife with families abandoned by fathers. Read Marvin Olasky's "American compassion" writings, for example.
Unless someone can show me solid data from the last 200 years, I see a lot of this as being more anecdotal. Michael Medved pointed out that we have heard for centuries how the world is going downhill; if there were no upswings engendered by crisis to concentrate the mind, we would have crashed long before now.
I have a relative who had a child out of wedlock at 18 by an irresponsible construction worker. She later had another one by an irresponsible policeman. On welfare, she went to tech school to take nursing, then got a job. Today? She got back together with guy #1 and had kid #3. They got married, and are raising all three. She upgraded to a BSN degree, he is still a construction guy who has worked all through the recession. They own a practical affordable home with cars paid off and are just fine. People mature.