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Here is a summary of why I find these criticisms about black people marrying so bad and unconvincing.
Let us put aside all the normal progressives critiques we hear in response.
Like I mentioned before, in 1960 a conservative lead commission came to the same conclusion about single-family households were a unique problem with the black family. Their response was to pass policies that incentivized two parents households. I have my criticisms of such an approach but it is clearly much more level headed than what I see people arguing in here
In 2017, a conservative think tank wrote a study on this. There take on it....
The problem with trying to paint this as a uniquely black problem is that is has a massive class dynamic to it. And what group experiences poverty at a higher rate?
Their take on why higher-income people getting and staying married...
Lower-income people marriages have more to do with social norms and institutions that support marriage, when those break down, so do marriages.
These trends are occurring in all racial classes. The United States has a higher rate of single-parent households than other advanced economies. The black population is simply not big enough to explain away that difference. What else is unique about America? It has on of the worse middle-class social safety needs compared to other advanced economies.
If someone wants more black people to get married it would probably do more if housing was cheaper, we had a universal childcare allowance without a marriage penalty and did all we could to pull the most people out of poverty. If we are talking culturally, then the black church gaining more prominence might do more than more people adopting this "accountability framing"
When we talk about macro problems, the discussion should be about macro solutions. Solutions that work other places, work across class and racial lines. Because again, black people are not uniquely bad, morally bankrupt, against the nuclear family. Marriage is falling out of favor with a lot of people.
There are just more forces tearing the black nuclear family apart.
More moralizing about black people failures probably isn't gonna do much
Let us put aside all the normal progressives critiques we hear in response.
Like I mentioned before, in 1960 a conservative lead commission came to the same conclusion about single-family households were a unique problem with the black family. Their response was to pass policies that incentivized two parents households. I have my criticisms of such an approach but it is clearly much more level headed than what I see people arguing in here
In 2017, a conservative think tank wrote a study on this. There take on it....
The American Enterprise Institute recently published a new report by Brad Wilcox and Wendy Wang that highlights the class divide in American marriage. As the authors explain, prior to the 1970s family life looked similar across socioeconomic levels, but today there are stark divides across class when it comes to marriage, divorce, and unwed childbearing.
The problem with trying to paint this as a uniquely black problem is that is has a massive class dynamic to it. And what group experiences poverty at a higher rate?
Their take on why higher-income people getting and staying married...
Wilcox and Wang also hypothesize that because working-class and poor Americans don’t have as large an economic or social stake in marriage, cultural norms are more significant for maintaining their marriages. For example, the authors point to homeownership as a barrier against divorce. But because poor and lower-income Americans are less likely to own a home, the authors note, there are “fewer reasons to avoid divorce.”
While it makes sense that having greater assets connected to marriage would provide a barrier to divorce, it also seems plausible that a working class couple would have substantial financial reasons to avoid divorce. Staying married could mean the difference between remaining afloat financially and falling into a precarious economic situation where each parent now must maintain their own separate household.
Another reason that the authors include for increased family instability among poor and working-class Americans are the marriage penalties of the means-tested welfare system. For example, Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) penalize marriage (among dozens of other means-tested welfare programs that all essentially penalize marriage). This is because when a couple marries, their income is counted together but the household income threshold for benefits remains the same—effectively decreasing the amount of welfare benefits the household is eligible to receive. For example, a single mother of two children with annual earnings of $15,000 would receive about $5,200 in food stamp benefits annually, but if she marries a man who also earns $15,000, they would no longer be eligible for SNAP.
Lower-income people marriages have more to do with social norms and institutions that support marriage, when those break down, so do marriages.
These trends are occurring in all racial classes. The United States has a higher rate of single-parent households than other advanced economies. The black population is simply not big enough to explain away that difference. What else is unique about America? It has on of the worse middle-class social safety needs compared to other advanced economies.
If someone wants more black people to get married it would probably do more if housing was cheaper, we had a universal childcare allowance without a marriage penalty and did all we could to pull the most people out of poverty. If we are talking culturally, then the black church gaining more prominence might do more than more people adopting this "accountability framing"
When we talk about macro problems, the discussion should be about macro solutions. Solutions that work other places, work across class and racial lines. Because again, black people are not uniquely bad, morally bankrupt, against the nuclear family. Marriage is falling out of favor with a lot of people.
There are just more forces tearing the black nuclear family apart.
More moralizing about black people failures probably isn't gonna do much
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