Ruining Marriage
In amongst the Prop8 ruling in California, we get this about the decline of marriage rates from Paul Krugman . Krugman goes onto explain that what really may be going on here is the decline of earned income (he has a graph too). Should we really be surprised that young men, confronting the reality that they won’t earn anything near as much in real terms as their fathers did — and that they will be even further from having what society sees as an adequate income, because even Adam Smith acknowledged the importance of social norms in defining prosperity — don’t marry and raise families the way the previous generation did? So what's really ruining marriage in America, teh evil icky gay or perhaps terrible economic policies? I'd have to go with that latter. Over the years, we've had policies that have hindered men and women from committing to a relationship because they lack the "adequate income" to start and raise a family. It's a tough decision, one th...