As the bride got more and more out of control, I became fascinated - kind of like those people who can't move, even though the ax murderer is coming closer and closer.
I was reminded of the show by an article about the last state to enact no-fault divorce - NY. Calling for a "Marital Marshall Plan", Charles Donavan states:
The problem of family disintegration is approaching that scale. The nation’s out-of-wedlock birth rate is more than 50 percent higher for all women of childbearing age than it was for the black American subset that so troubled the late Pat Moynihan when he wrote his study for the Labor Department in the 1960s. The poverty rate for children born to single parents is nearly five times higher than it is for children born into intact families.Why is this issue so important? Because even a mediocre marriage conveys tremendous benefits to all the participants:
- Financial
- Lower car insurance
- Raise your credit score
- Get better loan offers
- Increase financial stability
- Combine expenses
- Share employer benefits
- Men
- Improved health
- Better pay than when single
- Keep you out of trouble
- Help you live longer
- From the US Dept of Health & Human Services, a LONG list of benefits for all parties (men, women, and children, plus the community at large), including:
- Lower crime rates
- Lower domestic violence crime rates (YES, I know this goes against all that propaganda about DV and marriage - but what you DON'T hear is that almost all of the actual DV involves unmarried couples)
- Additional reasons here (365 of them)
As a society, we benefit from marriage. The children benefit from marriage, particularly in the fact that their father is more likely to be involved in their lives. Women benefit from marriage - they are LESS likely to be abused in a marital situation than when co-habitating.
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