Marriage Sinks to New Low, Recession Blamed… by W.F. Price on September 28, 2010
Recently released Census Bureau figures reveal that in 2009 the proportion of married Americans fell lower than ever, dropping 5% in the last 9 years alone. Compared to 57% in 2000, today only 52% of all adults are married. The institution of marriage is crumbling under a combined feminist and federal assault, which has legislated it into something that is roughly the opposite of what it used to be.
Pointing to the recession as the primary reason for the death of marriage is entirely off the mark. The decline of marriage has been ongoing since at least the early 1970s, when no-fault divorce created an explosion of divorces and started to make men more reluctant to tie the knot.
Spearhead contributor Charles Martel wrote a piece on the decline of the marriage rate that suggests that if current trends continue, marriage will cease to exist within roughly twenty years.
In the earlier days of the decline, men were generally blamed, but perhaps the recession provides an even more convenient excuse. Or, maybe, those who still support the institution are simply holding out in the impossible hope that the trend will turn around when times are better.
They are deluding themselves. As long as marriage remains an institution designed to suck the lifeblood out of men for the benefit of lawyers, the government and women, it will continue to weaken until it meets its well-deserved demise.