On marriage and families, French is even more wrong. Yes, if you are poor and get married, that is statistically an automatic ticket into the middle class. But the story doesn’t end there. It is much more accurate to say that America’s poor and working class don’t get married because they are poor and working class.
Individually, people always have a choice, but overall the marriage divide isn’t a choice. It is a systemic problem associated with poverty, and largely caused by stupid decisions policymakers made long ago.
The vast majority of America’s marriage decline is concentrated among poor and working-class Americans. As marriage rates plummeted among America’s poor, the institution has remained resilient among America’s upper-middle and upper class, who still marry at rates similar to those 50 years ago.
Among the poorest Americans, marriage has all but disappeared. Poor Americans want to be married, but they don’t see it as attainable.
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